Star Fox: WWII
by Wolffury
Summary: Star Fox based in a WWII era. Andross leads the Venomians to attempt to take over the world. The planet Lylat's only hope, The Star Fox Team.
1. PrologueStory info

**_Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dogs and cats, dragons of all ages. This is my first fanfic. The inspiration for it came while playing Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII. It's basically Star Fox based in WWII. There may be some historical references but nothing to major. So kids, that means this story can't be used for any WWII essays or projects._**

**_I do not own Star Fox WWII, or anything else that appears in this fanfic. Now,on with the reading._**

* * *

**Star Fox: WWII**

* * *

In 1914 the First World War on Lylat began. The evil Dr. Andross led his army of Venom soldiers in an attack on the rest of the countries. This was the first time a war had become this large, and engulfed the entire world of Lylat.

It was also the first war where combat was taken off the ground, and into the skies. Planes were just starting to be used in warfare, but they were already proving their worth. Many teams of pilots were sent into the skies to fight against each other, but only one stood out from the rest. The Star Fox Team.

Consisting of Pigma Dengar, Peppy Hare, and led by James McCloud, the Star Fox team shot down every opponent Andross threw at them. It was at the end of the war that Star Fox was sent to attack Andross' main base. During the fight Pigma betrayed Star Fox and attacked Peppy forcing him to retreat. James tried to shoot down the traitor, but Pigma escaped. James then turned to fight Andross and his War Blimp. James shot down the blimp, but before he could escaped Andross hooked his plane with a harpoon, holding him under the blimp as it crashed down on top of him.

Peppy made it back to base and waited for James to return. When he didn't Peppy began to fear for his friend's life. His fear was confirmed a few hours later when Cornerian forces found the remains of James and his plane. Peppy then returned home, to tell James' wife what had happened. When he returned though he was met with more tragic news. James' wife had gotten into a severe car crash, she died on impact, leaving her and James' newborn son, Fox, orphaned. Peppy took in Fox and raised him as his own son.

At the age of eighteen Fox, his friends Falco and Slippy, and Peppy then reformed the Star Fox Team. They quickly became the best pilots in the world, rivaled only by the notorious Star Wolf. Now armed with new Arwing planes, and their own aircraft carrier, the Great Fox, they're ready to take on any challenge.

* * *

- Macbeth 1939 -

A small family of farmers were working out in the fields. Their farm was positioned right next to the Fichina-Venom border. They hear a rumbling noise in the distance and look up to see a convoy of tanks coming out of Venom and down the road. All of the tanks had the Andross symbol painted onto them. One tank veered off and headed straight for the family's farm. About halfway down the road it stopped, it waited for a few seconds before firing and blowing up the farmers home, then the barn. The tank then turned around and rejoined the convoy as they headed for the country's capital city.

The family got up from their crouched down position and watch as the tanks went by. Only the older members of the family knew what this meant.

Andross has returned.

- Cornerian capital -

"Sir reports are coming in of Venomian forces invading Fichina, Titania, and Fortuna."

"Aquas says they've spotted Venom forces on their borders."

General Pepper sat in his command chair as the reports came in. It had been a month since the reports of the return of Andross came in. Andross had sent out a worldwide broadcast proclaiming his new reign as Emperor of Venom. He had already begun his invasion of Macbeth. The countries of Zoness and Eladard had changed allegiances and sided with Andross and the Venom army. The country of Aquas had all but fallen to the Venomian forces. They still resisted, but they were being pushed back. The rest of the world had been shocked by Andross' return, and were unprepared for his second campaign to conquer the world.

Corneria was still gathering their forces for the main assault to drive Andross back. Corneria had been having problems of their own after the first war and had been struggling to recover, as were the other nations. Their armies were scattered, the countries were disorganized, and they were greatly outgunned as well. Andross had not been simply hiding in the shadows, he had been building weapons to help turn the tide in his favor. With the countries of Lylat in distress and Andross gaining more ground each day, there was only one thing to do.

General Pepper picked up his phone, "Clara. Contact Star Fox ASAP!"

* * *

- The Papetoon Islands -

The Great Fox was sitting off the beach of one of the islands of Papetoon. Gilligan Island to be exact, named after the man who found it, First Mate Gilligan of the S.S. Minnow. The Star Fox team had recently completed a high paying job of escorting a corporate billionaire's daughter down to the islands. The billionaire had paid quite handsomely for his daughter's safety. That and since they were already there, they decided to take a vacation.

Fox was sitting on the wing of his plane out on the deck of the ship when Engineer Robert Oliver Burns, or Rob as everyone called him, came running up to him. Fox looked down as Rob came up to him.

"Sir, we've got an urgent message coming over the wire from General Pepper." Rob called out.

Fox didn't waste a second in jumping down from the wing he had been perched on and dashed to the communications room. After passing down several hallways, accidentally hitting his head on the doorway once (he really hoped that ships would get bigger hallways in the future) and passing by several of the Great Fox's crew, he turned into the communications room. As he entered the telegraph technician, Radar, started sending something over the wire. Mostly likely telling Pepper that Fox was present. As soon as the message had been sent, a new one from the General came through. The Telegraph tech wrote down the message while Fox read it over his shoulder.

_::Andross return. Invading Fichina Titania Fortuna. Zoness & Eldard sided with Venom. Aquas & Macbeth falllen. Help us Star Fox. You're our only hope.::_

As Fox finished the message he took in what it meant. Andross had returned, the entire Planet was in peril, just like it was over twenty years ago. Before he was even born. The peril his father had sacrificed his own life to finish. And now it had returned.

"Corporal, send this over. _::You can count on us General. Just like you did my dad.::_"

The message was sent and not two seconds later another came back. This one was shorter._ ::I know you'll make your father proud Fox.::_

With that Fox turned to the Rob who had come followed Fox from the flight deck. "Get everyone to their stations and cast off. I want this ship underway as soon as possible."

"Where are we going sir?" Rob asked.

"To war."

* * *

~ Notes for the story ~

**Planet to country reference:**

Corneria = America

Aquas = France

Venom = Germany

Fichina = Russia

Sauria = England

Papetoon = The Caribbean Islands

Eladard = Hungary

Macbeth = Poland

Zoness = Italy

Titania = Africa

Fortuna = Belgium

Katina = The Netherlands

**Character ages as of 1939:**

Fox, 21

Falco, 22

Slippy, 18

Peppy, 50

General Pepper, 53

Rob, 17

Wolf, 23

Leon, 23

Pigma, 51

Oikonny, 19

Bill Grey, 21

Katt Monroe, 20

Andross, unknown(but old, REALLY old)

Panther Caroso, 22

Tricky, 14

Krystal, 20

**Planes:**

Arwing I: Similar in design to the P-51 Mustang.

Wolfen I: Based off of the Spitfire Mk XIV, the main difference is that it has two sets of wings, one above the other.

* * *

**_So, that's it for the prologue. There will probably be long periods of time between updates. This is due to other stories I'll be posting, as well as something called life, which does get in the way._**


	2. Chapter 1

**_Thanks for being patient guys. I know this took a while, but in all fairness I did warn you that there would be long waiting periods. Sometimes when writing the hardest thing I have to decide is how to start it. I do have big ideas for this story, but those aren't until later on. Anyway, enough of me wasting your time, on with the reading!_**

* * *

Chapter 1

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- September 19th: 1939; Cornerian capital -

* * *

Fox walked into the main base for the Cornerian Department of Defense, the Nonagon. General Pepper had wanted to inform Fox of the situation in person. Fox walked down several hallways and rode an elevator to the top floor before he reached the General's office. Fox stopped at the door and knocked. General Pepper asked Fox to come in and sit down.

"So what's the situation General?" He asked.

"Andross has taken control of several countries, and is pushing to take over more. The other countries have tried to hold him back, but he's still making progress. I need you and your team to head over there and help with whatever you can, while we organize our forces to join in the fight."

"You mean Corneria's not in the fight yet?"

"No. We need to organize and build up our forces if we wish to push Andross back. When we are ready though, we will join in, and we will strike hard."

"Very well. Is there anything else General?"

"You're going to have to wait a few weeks before you set sail. You've kept The Great Fox in excellent condition considering the circumstances, but we're still going to upgrade it so that its ready for war. Once that is done, you set sail." Pepper said as he pulled out a mission file and handed it to Fox. "Your destination will be Fortuna. When you get there, your job will be to report to General Dane for further orders. Dismissed."

With both men saluting each other, Fox got up and walked back out of the building with the mission file.

* * *

- One month later: Off the coast of Fortuna -

* * *

The Great Fox was docked in the harbor. Fox and his team took two army jeeps to Fortuna's main base. Once they got there, they found it appeared to be an inn of some sort. As they entered they looked around.

It looked like a standard inn. There was a front desk, a small bar off to there left, and a lobby to their right. The Sargent that had met them at the docks and taken them there went up to the front desk. Him and the clerk exchanged code phrases.

"May I get you a room sir?"

"Yes, I was hoping could I get room 7."

The inn had two floors, both only had five rooms. The first floor had rooms 1-5, and the second only had rooms 11-15. The room numbers 7 and 9 were code words. 7 was _entry to the base_, and 9 was_ the enemy was here._

The clerk then grabbed a key that was taped under the desk and pretended to get it from one of the hooks behind him. He then handed it to the Sargent and directed him to the back. They went to the back and the Sargent moved a lamp on the wall to reveal a keyhole. He inserted the key and turned it. The wall moved inwards and the Sargent pushed the secret door open. They all stepped inside and the door closed behind them. They walked down several flights of stairs and then down a hallway with a door at the end. Through the door was a secret underground base. Far enough down to protect them from being bombed. In the middle of the main room was a large table with a map of the Central countries. There were flags, miniature buildings, and ships of varying colors on the map to show troop movements. The red ones that dominated a large portion of the map represented Andross' forces, the others represented the Lylatian Allies. Standing in front of the map was General Dane.

On one side of the room were several telegraphs and receivers who were gathering intel on the war. On the other, several typists used their typewriters to write reports and stuff. The room was buzzing with noise as telegraphs chirped, typewriters clicked and clacked, and people talked and occasionally shouted things to each other.

The Sargent led Fox and his team down towards the General. The Sargent then saluted the General. When the General dismissed the Sargent, he walked away, then the Star Fox team stood at attention and saluted.

"Star Fox, reporting for duty General." Fox said.

General Dane saluted them back, "At ease men. Now I'm sure you know what you're here for. You've been temporarily assigned to us to help hold off Andross' forces and possibly even push them back. You first mission is to help out the boys in beta sector. I've just received intel that Andross means to send in heavy armor into that sector. Once you get there, talk to Colonel Drench, he'll have more information for you. Dismissed."

With a final salute, the team filed out and regrouped with the Great Fox. Once they were prepped the team took off with a few supply planes towards the airfield in beta sector. After about two hours they landed in the makeshift airfield and unloaded. While the team settled in, Fox went to report to Colonel Drench.

* * *

-Fortuna Battlefield beta: Three days later-

* * *

The once dense forests were slowly being reduced to mulch. The areas controlled by Andross were charred grey and black from the destruction caused by his army's tanks as they pushed their way forward. The Fortunians were being pushed back. Their main base was nothing more than a group of tents. They were spread out thin, taking to the trees and attacking from above.

Fox and his team were flying above the tree line. Which was quite high since the trees could grow to be over three thousand feet tall. They were currently flying to get behind enemy lines and attack from the rear. Their Arwing's had each been armed with six .50 caliber machine guns and six anti-tank rockets.

Fox could see the end of the tree line coming up. Once they passed that they would be spotted for certain. He had no doubt that the Venomians would be able to identify the signature white and blue markings of the Star Fox team. He opened up his radio to talk to his team.

"Alright team we're coming up on the tree line. Once we get past there turn yourselves around and spread out for your attack runs. We won't have to worry about enemy fire. They're armed for jungle warfare, not anti-air. Be careful once you get into the forest. There might be wide spaces between the trees, but they can still be a hazard."

"Quit the safety prompts Fox. You're talking to the world's best pilot right here." Replied Falco.

"And maybe you should stop over estimating yourself." Said Peppy.

They flew past the tree line and split up. They turned themselves around and dove strait towards the back of the offensive line. Fox lined up a tank in his crosshairs and fired a rocket. The rocket hit home and the tank exploded as he flew over it and into the trees. He navigated his way through the forest and found a hole in the forest roof that was free of branches. He flew out of it and back into the open sky before turning around and heading back to the frontlines. They kept this up until they were down to one rocket each. That was when things got interesting.

They were flying back to make their final run when they spotted them. Ten black dots were on the horizon. As they got closer Fox saw they were flying in an attack formation. Enemy fighters.

"Alright team. Looks like we've got company."

"That's what I'm talking about. I was getting board of shooting defenseless targets." Falco pitched in.

"Looks like we've got our work cut out for us." Slippy commented. He sounded slightly worried, like he always did when they were about to get into a fight.

"Just stay focused everyone." Peppy said.

They arranged themselves in attack formation and got ready to face the enemy head on. They stayed that way until they were 2'000 feet away. 1'000 feet. 750 feet. 500 feet.

"Now!"

On Fox's command the team broke formation and split up, just as the enemies opened fire. Peppy headed left, Slippy banked right, Falco went down, and Fox turned straight up. Fox spun his plane around and pulled back on the control stick to loop back around. The rest of his team had done similar maneuvers so now they were following the enemy. They each opened fire on a different plane. Four of the ten planes burst into flames and plummeted to the ground. The rest of the planes scattered, and the dogfighting officially began.

Fox counted five enemy planes left. He saw Falco bail Slippy out of some trouble when he was being chased by an enemy fighter. He himself was chasing after one of them. He lined the plane up in his crosshairs, and pulled the trigger. The sound of gunshots thundered in his ears as his plane's .50 cal machine guns shredded the enemy plane's tail. Fox's keen eyes caught the sight of some red on the cockpit's window as the plane quickly went into a dive.

Fox watched as the fighter crashed into the ground and exploded into a ball of flames. He jumped in his seat as he heard the sounds of bullets whizzing by and colliding with metal. He looked behind him to see an enemy fighter tailing him. He noticed the markings on the plane and saw that it wasn't just any fighter, it was the squad leader.

Fox quickly banked right and the squad leader followed after him. The squad leader fired another burst at him. The bullets flew past him, but a few of them hit his left wing. This guy was good.

Fox then dove down towards the ground, pulled up, and flew into the trees. The squad leader was following closely behind him and mimicking his every move. Fox flew through the forest, bobbing and weaving his way through the trees and branches. The squad leader was still chasing him though. It seemed Andross did have a few capable soldiers in his army.

Then Fox got an idea. He prepped his last rocket and started looking for a suitable target. Once he found a good one, he flew closer to the ground and pulled up slightly. He fired his rocket at a large tree branch in front of him. He hit the base of the branch causing it to fall off of the tree. Fox pulled into a shallow dive and flew under the branch. The squad leader though, who had not anticipated Fox's bold move, was crushed as the tree branch fell onto his plane.

Fox flew out of the forest to regroup with his team. He spotted them flying over the forest roof. He didn't see any indicators of more enemy fighters.

"Fox! Are you alright?" Peppy asked, sounding concerned. "You flew into the forest, and when you didn't come out we got worried."

"You mean you and Slippy were worried. I was cool and calm this entire time." Falco commented.

"Regardless of who was worried for whom. Great job team." Fox told them.

Just then another voice came across the radio. "Hello, Star Fox? This is Lieutenant Rhoads. Do you read me?"

"We read you loud and clear Lieutenant." Fox responded.

"Thanks for the help with those tanks. Andross' force are retreating...for now."

"Keep up the good work down there boys. Star Fox out."

The team then flew back to base with the sun setting at their backs.

* * *

-Skywalker Base-

* * *

Once they had landed, they returned to their barracks for some rest and to wait for their next mission. The team had to share the same barracks, but Fox got his own room since he was the leader.

Fox sat down at his desk to start writing out his mission report. As he filled it out, his mind wandered to thoughts of how this war would turn out. He already knew that no matter what, too many lives would be lost in the process. He still wasn't sure how much of an impact his team would make. They were only four pilots, and the enemy was an army of thousands. The victory they had won today was a small one. They had delayed Andross' advance in beta sector by a day at least; two at most. Andross would be back and he would strike hard.

As Fox's thoughts wandered, his eyes travelled across his desk. In one corner was a small clock that currently said it was 21:16 (9:16p.m.). In the other corner was a framed picture of his mom and dad on their wedding day. Fox hoped that he would be able to live up to his father's legacy. It was the one thing he wanted most, to be able to wear the McCloud family name with honor.

Fox finished his report and opened his desk drawer to put it away until he could send it in the next morning. He was about to put it in when his eyes caught something. There was already a file in there, and the name on it was what caught his attention. Fox pulled out the file and put his report in the drawer.

Fox opened the file and the first thing he noticed was the mugshot. It may have been black and white, but Fox knew what the guy in there looked like in real life. Gray fur with white markings, member of the lupine family, he had one purple eye, and the other was covered with an eye patch. His arch-enemy, Wolf O'Donnell.

Wolf and his team, Star Wolf, were mercenaries like his was. The main difference, was that Wolf was out to get him. Fox was the reason he needed the eyepatch. He had done it when Wolf had attacked him several years ago.

Wolf was the most notorious criminal in the world. His crimes would probably get him the death sentence several times over. Fox couldn't help but wonder though, would Wolf get involved in the war? Some of the only times Fox has ever been scared, was when Wolf was hunting him down. Wolf was an extraordinary pilot, a remarkable soldier, and would've made a valuable ally, but if Wolf got involved in the war, he had a feeling he would side with Andross. Simply for the chance to fight Star Fox.

* * *

**_There is the official chapter one. Hope you all enjoyed, feel free to leave a review about the chapter. I actually have a few questions for you guys. But first, to respond to the reviewers who don't have accounts._**

**_Guest: I'm going to assume "diving" was just a typo error for "digging", which means you like it, so yay!_**

**_Fortress120: Glad you find the story interesting. As for your suggestion, I'm sorry but I won't be able to use it. I've already got plans for the "Nazis". Everything is primarily going to revolve around Star Fox. Most references to movies, other games, etc. in the story are going to be Easter Eggs or Cameo appearances meant simply for the lols._**

**_Now that that's done, I've got some questions for you guys. First of all, other than a few exceptions like the Arwings, Wolfens, and character specific weapons. Should I keep weapons and vehicles historically accurate, or should I add a Star Fox twist to them? Example: Historically accurate: Panzer tank. Star Fox twist: Panther tank._**

**_Also, should I have everyone, except the Saurians, speak English, or should they have different languages like French, Russian, etc. Warning though; I cannot type foreign accents to save my life._**

**_See you guys next time. Wolffury out._**


	3. Chapter 2

_**Hello guys, I'm back! So, its been decided that vehicles and weapons will remain historically accurate. And all the countries will have their correlating languages. Note: I won't be typing entire conversations in separate languages. I only know English, and translating will take **_**forever. _And I would like to apologize beforehand if I offend anyone with my terrible foreign accent typing. _**

**_Also, when you get to the dialogue and it looks like jumbled up letters. That would be Saurian. The words in parenthesis are the translation. _**

**_On with the story!_**

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Chapter 2

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- Dreylar City; Sauria: October 2nd. 1939: 23:01 -

* * *

_BOOM! KABAM!_ _**BOOM!**_

Krystal was running through the city as sirens blared and explosive shells rained down around her. She was wearing blue cargo pants, black combat boots, a blue combat uniform, and her Saurian pilot leather jacket. She wore black leather fingerless gloves on her hands, and a military watch on her left wrist. She had her Cerinian staff in its compact form in her hand, and her pistol holstered on her right thigh.

The Venomians had started bombing them an hour ago. The once beautiful city was now riddled with crumbling buildings and large piles of rubble. The place looked like something out of a nightmare. Tall buildings everywhere had large chunks missing from them. Searchlights lit up the night sky, looking for enemy planes. Whenever one was spotted, AA guns filled in whatever silence the explosions missed by rumbling the air as they fired their incendiary rounds into the sky. The shadows cast by the searchlights onto the clouds overhead only intensified the eerie feeling the city now emitted. The bomb's explosions only helped scatter the remains of the collapsed buildings; sending bricks and dust flying. Anyone who was smart would be taking cover underground.

Krystal hated being stuck in the middle of a bombing. The total widespread desruction. The many lives that just one of them could, and have, taken. But most of all, it reminded her too much of what happened to Cerinia.

She reached out with her mind to make sure Prince Tricky was following her. She had been in charge of keeping him safe, and right now that meant getting him to the bunker under the King and Queen Earthwalker's vacation house. She could sense that he was right on her tail and she quickly refocused to getting them to safety. A bomb exploded to her left and blew up the remaining skeleton of a building, causing debris to fly everywhere. A brick narrowly missed her head, and she decided they needed to get out of the open. She spotted a bar that was still mostly intact to her right. It was certainly better than the middle of the street.

"Tricky! Xout veh kxo ruh, (Tricky! Head for the bar.)" she shouted to him.

They both dashed towards the bar and jumped through one of the blown out windows. They both jumped behind the counter and hid there as a bomb exploded right outside the bar. They just sat there waiting for the next bomb to go off, but it never did.

Krystal cautiously peeked out from behind the counter. The dust was still settling from the last explosion. She strained her ears to listen for any indicators of more bombing. Then she reached out with her mind. She couldn't sense any more enemy pilots in their immediate area. She then noticed that the sirens had stopped screaming as well.

She looked back down at Tricky. The poor kid was shaking terribly. Krystal could understand how he was feeling. During her first few bombings she had been terrified. She had gotten used to it, but there was still something about being blown up at any second that sent fear into her.

"Aj ak eleh, (Is it over?)" he asked.

"Ooōj. Aj ak. (Yes. It is.)"

They both walked out of the bar and into the streets. They turned to their right and continued walking to the vacation home. Tricky wasn't even supposed to be there in the first place. He had been so eager to prove that he was old enough to fight that he snuck out of his parent's palace and made a beeline straight for Dreylar. This resulted in his parents contacting Krystal, who was supposed to be leading a flight squadron to help defend against the bombings, and asking her to find Tricky and return him to safety.

Together they walked through the desolated streets. During the bombing it had been too loud, now it was too quiet. The only noises to be heard were their footstep crunching through the rubble, and the occasional breeze blowing through the ruined buildings. Krystal didn't like it one bit.

They came across one of the AA gun positions. Krystal reached out with her mind, but sensed nothing. She quickly stopped and turned to make a detour. Mainly so Tricky didn't see whatever sight was waiting for them on the other side of the sandbag wall. Partly because she didn't want to see what was behind the sandbag wall.

* * *

After an hour of navigating their way through the demolished streets of Dreylar, they found themselves at the King & Queen Earthwalker's vacation home. The sentries let them through the front gate. The two walked through the house's courtyard. The once alluring garden was looking miserable. The bushes were missing large clumps of leaves, and there was a crater where a bomb had landed.

Once they reached the door, Krystal knocked the secret password. They heard movement from behind the doors before they were swung open. Krystal gave the guards a nod before leading the way into the house. The place was a mansion, three stories tall (which was even taller than you would think since it was made to house dinosaurs), it had several bedrooms of various sizes, several bathrooms a large kitchen, a dining room, a ballroom, and a playroom for Tricky. Underneath was a typical basement complete with a storage room, wine cellar, and a bomb shelter that doubled as a command center in cases of emergency.

Krystal led Tricky up the stairs and to his room.

"Don jkuoo eik ev kheirco. (Now stay out of trouble.)"

"Ebuoo. (Okay)" Tricky replied dejectedly.

Krystal was about to close the door when she heard Tricky speak, "Xōoo Krystal? (Hey Krystal?)"

"Hmm." Krystal turned to face the embarrassed prince.

"A zijk nudkot ke juoo a'm jehoo veh roadw jisx u fhercom, udt kxudb ooei veh vadtadw mo. (I just wanted to say I'm sorry for being such a problem, and thank you for finding me.)" He said.

"Udookamo Tricky. A um ooeih vhaodt uvkorucc. (Anytime Tricky. I am your friend afterall.)" she replied with a smile. Tricky smiled back. She closed the door and went down to the control room to check in.

* * *

She went down into the basement and walked to the solid metal door that had Earthwalker guards flanking both sides. The guards stepped aside to let her pass. She picked up the receiver for the phone intercom and pressed the buzzer. A few seconds later, a voice came through the receiver.

"Seto neht? (Code word?)"

"Jkedonucc. (Stonewall.)" She replied.

There was the sound of heavy metal moving from within the door. There was a thunk from the locking pins moving into their unlocked position. Then the heavy door slowly swung open.

Inside was a small command base. It had a radio, a telegraph, and a large map in the center of the room. Standing over the map was General Hornsworth, an Earthwalker who had served in the First World War. Flanking him were Colonel Mudfoot (a dark green Lightfoot with brown markings.), and Skylia, Queen of the Cloudrunners.

Krystal walked in and stood at the opposite side of the table. She stood at attention and saluted the three in front of her.

"Lieutenant Krystal hofehkadw ad. (Lieutenant Krystal reporting in.)"

"Uk oujo. Tricky tatd'k walo ooei kee misx kheirco, tat xo? (At ease. Tricky didn't give you too much trouble, did he?)" General Hornsworth asked.

"De, xo tatd'k. Kxo remradw xenoloh, nuj u tavvorodk mukkoh. (No, he didn't. The bombing however, was a different matter.)" she replied.

"Kxojo remradwj uho rosemadw giako u diajudso. (These bombings are becoming quite a nuisance.)" Skylia commented grimmly.

"Uwhoot. Rik no xulo meho fhojjadw ajjioj. Kxo Aquas vhedk aj giasbkoo vuccadw. Ucc ev kxoah vehsoj, uj nocc uj eihj, uho roadw sehdohot ad kxo sakoo ev Dunkirk. Av Andross' vehsoj ukkusb kxom, ak nacc ro u mujjusho. (Agreed. But we have more pressing issues. The Aquas front is quickly falling. All of their forces, as well as ours, are being cornered in the city of Dunkirk. If Andross' forces attack them, it will be a massacre.)" said General Hornsworth.

"Nxut'j kxo olus fcud General? (What's the evac plan General?)" Krystal asked. She knew they needed to get those soldiers out of there, but the Saurian navy didn't have enough transports to get them out fast enough.

"Kxo Venomian jectaohj uho xectadw kxoah fejakaed zijk eikjato kxo sakoo. No kxadb Andross fcudj ke remr ak. Kxo King Earthwalker xuj succot eik veh ucc sufurco jxafj ke uat ad kxo olusiukaed. Krystal, ooei udt ooeih jgiut, ucedw nakx jeml ev Queen Skylia's, nacc vcoo kxo sakoo udt jkucc kxo remrohj tihadw kxo olusiukaed. (The Venomian soldiers are holding their position just outside the city. We think Andross plans to bomb it. The King Earthwalker has called out for all capable ships to aid in the evacuation. Krystal, you and your squad, along with some of Queen Skylia's, will fly over the city and stall the bombers during the evacuation.)" General Hornsworth explained.

* * *

- Dunkirk: Oct. 8th. 1939: 5:02 -

Krystal's squad, along with Skylia's RAF, had been holding off the Venomian bombers for six days while the Aquians were evacuated. They could only spare a few squads so they had to work in shifts. Over the past five days her squad had only gotten a total of twenty-six hours of sleep. Now they were flying to replace another squad for the shift change.

There were two squadrons over Dunkirk at a time, sometimes three. One squad to act as the first line of defense against bombing runs. The second to shoot down any bombers that slipped by the first, before they did too much damage. They would stay up there for several hours until the next shift came so they could go back and refuel.

The first day had been fairly easy. The Venomians thought that it would be a simple case of sending the bombers, then send in the ground troops for clean up. So all they sent were five squadrons of bombers. Due to their poor maneuverability and overconfidence, they were quickly taken by surprise and gunned down. Too bad the last few days hadn't been as easy as the first. It was now day five of the evac, and they'd only gotten half of the soldiers out of Dunkirk.

* * *

It had been an hour since they'd replaced the last shift. She could look out over the harbor as ships streamed in and out to help evacuate. It was shocking how fast the number of volunteers had grown. After the second day, she was sure that every ship in Sauria was there, carrying every soldier they could fit on their boats. There were ships of all sizes from passenger ships to lifeboats, carrying passengers across the waters of the Saurian Channel, turned golden by the rays of the morning sun.

Right below her was the burning city of Dunkirk. Buildings had been reduced to rubble. The top of the church's bell tower had been blown off. Pillars of smoke rose from buildings that had caught fire. Unlike the harbor, the sunlight had a two-faced effect on the city. The sunlight bathed the clay-red roofs of the untouched houses with amber light, but cast eerie shadows from the crumbling buildings and smoke.

Beyond the city were the green hills of Aquas' "countryside", if you could call a swamp that. Another reason the destruction of the city was taking so long, the Venomians had difficulty bringing their equipment through the swampy terrain. But now, the hills were lined with tanks and soldiers. They surrounded the city preventing any escape by land. They originally had artillery guns ready to bombard the city with explosive shells, but they opted to hide them in the swamps after the RAF bombed several of them the first day.

Then the call came over the radios of their Hawker Hurricanes.

"Krystal! No'lo wek udekxoh nulo ev remrohj somadw ad vhem kxo Dehkxoujk. (Krystal! We've got another wave of bombers coming in from the Northeast.)"

It was Sqn Ldr. Akart leader of Knight Squadron. He and his boys were the first line of defense against the bombers. Unlike Krystal's squad, Akart's men rode on the backs of Cloudrunners. They weren't as fast and couldn't carry as much equipment, but they could out maneuver the enemy.

This wave would have been the nineteenth attempt by Andross to bomb Dunkirk. It may have seemed like a waste of bombers (which it was), but now that Andross controlled both Eladard _and_ Macbeth (two of the world's largest industrial countries) he had more than enough planes to spare. As for men, they had learned a long time ago that Andross had more than enough followers.

Krystal then radioed her squad mates, "Uchawxk reooj. Jkuhk xoutadw veh Knight Squad's cesukaed. (Alright boys. Start heading for Knight Squad's location.)"

"Weksxu. (Gotcha.)" Said Cpl. David Barton.

"Cout kxo nuoo. (Lead the way.)" Radioed in Cpl. Walter Stanwood.

"Cok'j wok kxom. (Let's get them.)" Reported Sgt. Larry Reynolds.

Those were her squad mates and the best friends she had. When she first came to Sauria, she had been alone. Her home had been destroyed, and no one but a few believed that Cerinia had ever existed. When she joined the Saurian RAF she had been grouped with those three for training. After training, Krystal left the RAF and moved on to more ground based training. She wanted to become a soldier that could fight in the air, and on land. When she rejoined the RAF and got to pick her squad, she immediately knew who she wanted.

David was a twenty-two year old, fun loving silver fox. He had silver fur with black on his muzzle and ears, his tail was black with a pure white tip, and he had a pair of pale blue eyes. When off duty he and Walter tended to be troublemakers. Nothing serious, just small pranks like butter in your shoes, or hot sauce on your toothbrush. He took his job seriously though. He was a mechanic and knew where all the weak spots on the enemies vehicles were.

Walter was a golden lab of the age twenty-two, with wheat yellow fur and almond brown eyes. Like David, he could be quite the prankster. Him and David would sometimes get into "prank wars" to find out who could play the better prank on the other. Walter was a great pilot who would risk anything and everything for his teammates. If they ever got into a tough situation, Walter would always take the roll of decoy and draw the enemy off.

Larry tended to be the responsible older brother of their group. He was a thirty-three year old white Foxhound with brown spots and grey eyes. He tended to play by the rules, which often made him subject to David and Walter's pranks. When in the air he was a true hunter, and always got his target.

Together they made Psych squadron. Named after Krystal's telepathic powers, which made Walter originally think she was psychic. There was a difference though. Telepaths could sense minds or powerful presences around them and often times read them. Psychics could only see the future. So all those "psychics" who claim to talk to the dead...are conmen. True genuine telepathy was common on Cerinia, but was non-existent in the rest of the world. Fortune tellers were conmen as well, no one on Lylat could actually see the future. Krystal had found this out using her _actual_ telepathy on the so called _"psychics."_

They flew to the Northeast part of Dunkirk. It didn't take long before they spotted the eight Heinkel He 111's. Knight squadron was still busy with the fighter escort. Krystal spotted five Messerschmitt Bf 109's trying to shoot down the seven Cloudrunners. She saw a Cloudrunner make a quick loop and shoot down the fighter following them with it's two shoulder mounted 30 cal. machine guns. That was why the Couldrunners had riders, they couldn't operate the machine guns and radio by themselves.

Krystal told her friends, "Jfcak if udt kubo kxom tend reooj. (Split up and take them down boys.)"

"Homomroh, jkuoo ad kxo rcadt jfekj udt uam veh kxo odwadoj udt sesbfak. (Remember, stay in the blind spots and aim for the engines and cockpit.)" said David as the squad broke up to go after their individual targets.

Krystal flew around and attacked one of the bombers from an angle. She flew level with the plane and came at it from the left of the cockpit. She reached out with her mind and fired her four 20 mm machine guns at the cockpit. She first took out the nose gunner, then aimed just above the left engine. She knew she had hit the pilot when the bomber started to lose control and soon went into a nosedive. She didn't wait to watch the crash and went off to take down another bomber.

She saw David going after one and decided to help him out. She flew at a safe distance above the bomber and reached out with her mind to David.

_~"David."~_

_~"Gah! Blast it Krystal! I'm never going to get used to that."~_

Krystal couldn't help but "mind chuckle" before continuing, _~"Look we'll double team him. You attack the left wing from below, I'll attack the right wing from above."~_

_~"Alright, on three. One, two, three!"~_

Krystal dove down directly on top of the bomber. She fired a flurry of bullets at the engine. She altered her course so she wouldn't crash into the bomber and flew beneath it. David had passed her on her way down, so they reversed rolls and repeated the process until the engines caught fire. As it nosedived, the bomber exploded in midair, causing debris to fall onto an already evacuated part of Dunkirk.

She noticed Larry and Walter had already taken down a bomber each. They regrouped and went after the remaining bombers. David and Walter split off to team up on one bomber, while she and Larry did the same to another. Krystal attacked the cockpit from one angle, while Larry attacked from another. After they fired a hailstorm of lead into the cockpit, the bomber tailspun into the ground. Krystal was slightly ashamed to say her plane had taken a few rounds from the nose gunner. Nothing serious, it would just need a little patchwork once their shift was over.

They used the same method on the last two bombers. Unfortunately, they missed the pilot on their first run causing them to have to attack from the rear of the plane. Krystal and Larry banked wide and attacked the tail from two different angles. After unleashing a cascade of bullets into it, they flew around back to the front of the plane. They must have hit something vital though, because it looked like the bomber had lost control of its left tail elevator. The bomber was now jerking left and right, trying to stay level. Krystal and Larry made a final run on the cockpit. This time, the pilot was killed and the bomber quickly spun out of control.

They looked and saw David and Walter using a similar method to what they used on the bomber's engines. It worked fine and the engines soon caught fire. Then they heard the yelp.

"Yipe!"

Krystal reached out with her mind and checked on them. David was fine, but when she checked on Walter, she immediately felt pain, which made it hard to read his thoughts.

She called out to him on the radio, "Walter! Nxuk xuffodot? (Walter! What happened?)"

"Kxuk jkadbad' cakkco' widdoh medbōoo jxek mo. (That stinkin' little gunner monkey shot me.)" he replied. He sounded pained, like he was gritting his teeth while he talked.

"Xout rusb ke rujo udt wok ak ceebot uk. (Head back to base and get it looked at.)"

"Krystal, A'm vado. A sud- gerh. (Krystal, I'm fine. I can- gerh.)" he grunted in pain.

"Rusb ke rujo. Kxuk'j ud _ehtoh_. David, mubo jiho xo wokj kxoho. (Back to base. That's an _order_. David, make sure he gets there.)"

"Ooōj Lieutenant. (Yes Lieutenant.)" they both responded. David sounding a bit more eager than Walter. Of course it's hard to sound eager when you've been shot.

The two flew off back to their base near Dreylar. Larry and Krystal then regrouped with Knight squadron and informed them of the situation. Thankfully they didn't have to wait long for the next shift to come and take over for them.

* * *

- Kenobi Air Base: Oct. 8th. 1939: 10:57 -

* * *

Krystal was lying down on her bed, waiting for sleep to overtake her. Her next shift was several hours from now, and she would need as much sleep as she could get.

When they got back to base, the first thing they did was check up on Walter. The bullet had to be taken out of his left shoulder, but nothing major had been hit. He would be kept in the med wing for a few days, then once his wound had fully healed, he would be cleared to fly again.

Then they grabbed a quick bite to eat before she had to go and fill out reports about their shift. That was one of the only things she didn't like about her job. All the boring paperwork. And now here she was, just lying on her bed and letting her mind wander.

She thought about their mission, which led to her thinking about Walter getting shot. Had that bullet been one inch further down, he wouldn't have been with them anymore. Up there in their planes, they felt like they were Kings and Queen of the sky. Untouchable, unbeatable, until something like this happened. It was a risk they all took whenever they went up there, but it wasn't until now that it became a reality. They weren't untouchable, they weren't invincible, and they weren't unbeatable. There was always someone better out there, and if there wasn't someone better, then there was someone luckier. This business ended one of two ways; retirement or death.

All this thinking about death then led Krystal's mind to think about Cerinia and her people. They had been destroyed in no time at all. Now Krystal was the last of her kind.

In an attempt to think about something happier, Krystal made herself think of her friends. Walter, David, Larry, Tricky, and some others she had made. She thought about all the good times and the fun they had together. Her, David, and Walter playing jokes on others. Her and Larry getting back at the before mentioned duo for some joke that had been played on them. Her and Tricky sneaking around the palace to raid the kitchen of sugary goodies.

These memories then led her train of thought to _him_. She remembered the first time she'd met him. He was charming, gentle, and kind. A little bit shy, but she liked that. He was the one who inspired her to be a pilot. He was the only man who held her heart.

* * *

**_The Evacuation of Dunkirk. One of my favorite events in WWII. Yes, for those who dont know, the evac of Dunkirk was a real event. The dates are wrong I know, but I never promised 100% accuracy and it seemed like a good way to introduce Krystal into the story._**

**_Anyway, what did you guys think? Please leave a review below. They really do help motivate me to keep writing, plus I like to hear your opinions._**

**_See ya next time. Wolffury out._**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

* * *

- Katina; Thorsbrook: Oct. 10th. 1939: 23:58 -

* * *

Rain poured down in buckets onto the cobblestone roads of Thorsbrook. If one looked out over the tops of the buildings, they could see a flash in the distance followed shortly by the rumble of thunder. Street lamps illuminated the deserted streets of town. A 1936 Buick was parked right outside of Nelson's Bookstore. It would be the only witness to what would happen tonight.

Nelson's Bookstore was a nice little place. Wooden shelves were arraigned into aisles in the middle of the store. If you walked into the store the the first thing on your left would be more bookshelves, then to your right would be the checkout counter. The store was normally illuminated by some electric lamps hanging from the ceiling. There would also be shelves up against the wall, but those had been moved because Mr. Nelson was going to repaint the store.

Inside of the bookstore, Mr. Thomas Nelson was sorting books onto shelves by the light of an oil lamp. He was a young Pitbull of twenty-eight with tan fur and brown eyes. He had moved to this small town and opened his store three years ago. He was smiling and humming himself a cheerful tune. Completely unaware that he was being watched from the very back of the store.

Nelson finished sorting the books and walked over to the cash register at the checkout counter. As he was walking he didn't notice the shadow pass along the walls and disappear into the bookshelves opposite the counter. He set the lamp down on the counter and opened the cash register. Then he started counting to find out how much profit he made today.

He was up at this dreadful hour of the night due to having to move bookshelves so he could paint tomorrow. Plus he had to store said bookshelves and re-sort the books they contained. Now all he was looking forward too was going back home and curling up in his nice warm bed.

_"Too bad he'll never make it out of the store."_

Nelson finished collecting his money and blew out the lamp. He walked around the desk, but stopped when he heard something across from him. He strained his eyes and looked into the aisles. He could barely make out a tall silhouetted figure standing between the bookshelves.

"Hello Nelson." Said a gruff voice with a slight Saurian (British) accent to it.

"Who are you? Show yourself!" Nelson demanded. He snarled, revealing his canine teeth that were hidden beneath his lips.

The figure stepped out of the bookshelf's shadow and into the light cast through the windows by the street lamp. Which revealed the right half of the figure's face. It was only half of his face that was unveiled from the darkness, but it was enough for Nelson to realize who it was. He had grey and white fur, and a single purple eye glaring at Nelson.

Nelson's eyes widened and his snarl fell. He backed up against the counter. His breath and heartbeat quickened. He managed to utter the intruder's last name with fear sewn into his voice.

"O'Donnell."

Wolf took another step into the light. It was hard to tell in the dark lighting but he was wearing a brown trench coat over a black shirt and black pants, with black combat boots. He wore an eyepatch over his left eye.

Nelson was scared, and with good reason. He'd heard the stories about Wolf O'Donnell. Him taking on entire gangs by himself and leaving them with their intestines scattered across the ground. He would kill his victim's, then rip their skull and spine out of their bodies so that he could hang them on his walls. He was known to shoot people in the legs, inject them with an extreme pain inducing poison, then leave a gun on the floor and watch as they struggled to crawl across the ground so that they could end their own misery.

But the stories weren't what terrified him the most. What terrified him the most was that he knew **why** Wolf was here.

"L-Look, I know I was involved with a few things concerning you in the past. But can't we just leave it behind us? You know, just forget about it." Nelson pleaded.

Lighting flashed and thunder boomed right outside the store. As soon as the words had left Nelson's mouth, Wolf's expression turned from angry, to furious.

"Forget about it? _FORGET_ about it!?" Wolf shouted in outrage. His glare intensifying, and his lips curling back to reveal the mouth full of canine fangs. "YOU and the rest of your gang, Murdered! My! **Brother!**"

Wolf drew his B34st pistol from its holster on his right thigh and leveled it with Nelson's head. The gun was jet black, except for where letters had been scratched into the metal which shone like silver. Attached under the gun's barrel was a five and a half inch blade, with two and a half inches sticking out past the barrel's end.

Wolf slowly walked towards Nelson. What especially unnerved Nelson was how clam he was. Angry, but calm. His steps were slow and didn't make a sound. Wolf's one eye never left Nelson's. And his hand holding the gun was steadier than an artist's.

"Look it doesn't have to end like this," Nelson said, trying to stall Wolf while he searched for the gun hidden next to the cash register. Wolf saw through his scheme. He saw Nelson grabbing around for the gun, but he didn't show any sign of knowing. "I'll give you anything you want. Money, my car, uh, names!"

That made Wolf stop walking, but he was still aiming his gun at Nelson. The distance between them had shortened to a little over three feet. A name, that's what Wolf wanted, but he wanted one name in particular.

"Who's the leader of the gang," Wolf asked in a malevolently calm voice. He knew the names of everyone in the gang but the leader's. And he was the one he hated the second most in the world. Fox McCloud was the first.

"You know I can't do that. He'll find out and kill me." Nelson quickly responded in fear. Cold sweat was matting his fur down. Then he grabbed the gun and pulled it out.

**POW!**_ "Yipe!"_

Nelson cried out in pain and clutched his arm as the gun dropped to the floor. The bullet had gone strait through. Blood ran down his arm and dripped to the floor due to the bullet catching an artery.

"You're current situation isn't much better," Wolf said in the same dark but calm voice. He hadn't even flinched from Nelson's desperate actions. He didn't even give a second thought to shooting him. He'd become immune to the guilt of hurting people like Nelson a long time ago

"Then what are you waiting for? Shoot me!" Nelson begged.

"No." Wolf lowered his arm and let it hang at his side.

"You're not worth a second bullet," he said before turning to his left.

Nelson let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank you. Thank you for letting me live."

"Who said I was going to let you live?"

Nelson looked up and his eyes widened. Lightning flashed and thunder boomed, masking the sound of steel cutting through flesh.

Blood poured out of the cut in Nelson's throat and ran down his chest, covering the front of his shirt in the thick red liquid. Nelson's body leaned to the right and fell to the floor with a thump. His body lay on its side, blood continued to spill out of his throat and started to pool on the floor. The light from the street lamps dimly lit up the dark red liquid on the blade of Wolf's gun.

Wolf took a rag out his inner right coat pocket and cleaned the blood off of the blade. He then holstered his gun and walked into the back of the store. A few second later he came back out with a can of paint thinner. He opened the can and started pouring and splashing it around the store, being careful not to get any on himself.

He was about to splash some on a bookcase when something caught his eye. Wolf reached out a picked up a book off the shelf. He looked at the cover and tucked it under his arm so he could get back to work. He then continued splashing paint thinner around the store. When he was done he tossed the can and walked to the front door. He stopped at the door and turned around, reaching into his pocket.

"Don't you know that paint thinner is flammable?" Wolf asked the dead corpse before taking out some matches. He lit one of them and tossed it into an area soaked with paint thinner. The fumes caught fire before the floor did, and the fire quickly spread across the entire store.

Wolf walked out of the store and down the street, being eerily silhouetted by the light of the flames. His job there was done. He came and killed who he was after, but it didn't get him any closer to the gang's leader. He could have interrogated Nelson more, but he knew it would've been wasted time. The gang's members were surprisingly loyal to their leader. He knew that he needed to find the weak link to get the answers he wanted, and he already knew that Nelson wasn't it.

He continued walking down the street as rain poured down and lightning flashed overhead. He wondered if the police would connect him to the murder? Whether they did or didn't he didn't care either way. He was number one on the most wanted list for so many countries that it wouldn't make a difference. All he had to worry about was getting to his plane and getting back home safely.

* * *

- Sargasso Sea; Tol Lithui: Oct. 13th. 1939: 11:15 -

* * *

Wolf flew towards his secret island base. He lined up his plane to land, extended his landing gear, and descended. After he landed, he jumped out of the cockpit of his Wolfen Mk 1, with a book in his hand, and onto the runway. The Wolfen had a black body with red detailing. It's wings were grey with the Star Wolf emblem painted on them. The emblem was a blood-red wolf's head with black detailing and a black five-point star behind it.

He stood up straight and looked around at his island base. When most people think about an island, they think sandy beaches, green tropical plant life, and clear blue skies. Tol Lithui was the exact opposite.

Instead of sandy beaches the entire island was covered in ash, making everything grey and dull. On the boarders around the island, if you swept away the ash you would find a thick layer of glass underneath. There was an inactive volcano on the island which was the only thing that stood out apart from the buildings Wolf's men had constructed. There wasn't a sign of plant-life that could be seen. There were a few small islands to the west and south of the main island, they were used as smaller bases and outposts. The sky was overcast and grey most of the time, partly due to rainy weather, and mostly due to the active volcano about fifty miles away. The thing was constantly spewing out ash into the air, and the wind would carry it over. Clouding up the sky and constantly adding new layers of ash onto everything. Add all that to the island being shaped like a sideways Red-eye skull, and the entire place was spinechilling.

As the flight crew moved his Wolfen into the hangar for refueling, Wolf walked off the runway and towards the road where a jeep was waiting for him. He jumped into the back and told the driver to go to the command center. The driver, a tan and black Leopard Gecko, put the jeep into gear and drove off. Wolf just sat in the back and waited for the ride to be over. He had been flying for several hours straight and he just wanted to get some sleep.

They drove by some of the barracks where his men were playing football out front. Then they passed by one of the armories where they kept their extra weapons. There were several other armories spread out across the island so that all their weapons weren't kept in one spot. They also passed the radio tower, the radar center, and the mess hall.

Then they approached the volcano's base. The mountain had been hollowed out and turned into their main command center. There was a tunnel at the base that led into the mountain. The entrance to the tunnel was guarded by a large steel door that was two feet thick, two machine gun nests, and two armored Red-eyes who each had two .50 cal Browning M2s mounted to the sides of their heads. They drove up to the checkpoint at the entrance and stopped to be cleared for entrance. It didn't take long though for them to recognize Wolf.

"Lord O'Donnell. Nocsemo rusb. (Lord O'Donnell. Welcome back.)" said the deep terrorizing voice of the Red-eye on Wolf's right. Wolf just looked up at him and smiled. He wasn't intimidated by the Red-eye at all. In fact, that Red-eye was one of his more personal friends. They had lived just down the block from each other on Sauria when they were kids. If you can call a few houses and some jungle forest a block that is.

"Ak'j weet ke ro rusb, Ravage. Rik hawxk den I zijk nudk ke wok jemo hojk. Udt I kect ooei, zijk succ mo Wolf. (It's good to be back, Ravage. But right now I just want to get some rest. And I told you, just call me Wolf.)" Wolf told him.

"Idtohjkeet, Wolf. (Understood, Wolf.)" Ravage said before letting out an earsplitting roar.

A few seconds later, the large steel door started to open. Wolf's jeep drove in and the door immediately started closing behind them. They were now inside the hollowed out mountain. The tunnels they had dug out were thirty feet tall, fifty feet wide, and were reinforced with concrete. Overhanging lights lined the tunnel leading into the main garage. The main garage was just a giant room filled with vehicles: motorbikes, jeeps, and tanks from every country. Four passageways connected to the garage. The East passage was a road leading to the vehicle maintenance area. The North passage led to a staircase that ran to the levels above and below the garage. The South was the passage they were in that led outside. The West was Wolf's private elevator.

The jeep pulled into the garage and stopped right outside the elevator. Wolf jumped out and gave a quick two fingered salute to his driver. The Gecko returned the salute and drove off to park the jeep. Wolf stepped up to the elevator and opened the grated door. He stepped in and closed the door behind him before reaching for the elevator controls. He pulled the lever towards "up" and the elevator started to ascend.

As the elevator climbed its way up through the mountain, Wolf thought about Nelson. His list of targets was getting shorter. In fact it was almost completely finished.

Wolf then looked at the book he held in his hand. The cover had green forests, with black and grey snow capped mountains behind them. In the sky above the mountains rose the sun with birdlike shapes flying in front of it. The title of the book read, _The Hobbit._

_"This used to be one of Conrad's favorites," _Wolf thought to himself. The book had only been published two years ago, but Conrad was one of a lucky few who got to read it before it was published. He remembered that day well. Just like he remembered everyday he spent with his brother.

* * *

- Sauria; Oxford University: Sept. 5th 1932: 14:09 -

* * *

They had returned to their homeland of Sauria, from Corneria, to avoid some of the heat they had gained from their days with Capone. They decided it would be fun to sneak into the University, pull a few pranks on the teachers, and brighten the student's otherwise dull day. They had been forced to split up after dunking a math professor with a bucket of water. Now Wolf was sneaking around Oxford, looking for his younger brother.

The two brothers were almost identical in physical appearance. The two main giveaways were their height and eye color. Wolf was two inches taller and had amethyst purple eyes, while Conrad had golden amber eyes. As for personalities; the two were polar opposites. Wolf was the gruff, serious, tough guy; while Conrad was the happy, goof-off, brainiac.

He approached one of the teachers offices. The door was slightly ajar and he could hear voices coming from inside. He peaked in through the door's window and saw a teacher talking to Conrad. The brown and white beagle was leaning on his desk with his arms crossed, while Conrad was mimicking his form on a chair opposite him. What Wolf found weird, was that Conrad didn't look like he had been caught. Wolf listened in on their conversation.

"Ad moo fohjeduc efadaen, ooei'ho misx kee jmuhk ke ro teadw jisx sxactajx kxadwj. (In my personal opinion, you're much too smart to be doing such childish things.)" the professor said.

"Nocc kxod ooei'ho misx kee johaeij ke ro nhakadw u sxacthod'j reeb. (Well then you're much too serious to be writing a children's book.)" Conrad countered.

The professor smiled at that. "Nocc juat. (Well said.)" The professor then looked at something on his desk and back to Conrad. "Jadso ooei xulo jisx ud adkohojk ad moo reeb. Nxoo ted'k ooei xulo ak. (Since you have such an interest in my book. Why don't you have it.)"

Conrad's eyes widened. "H-houccoo? (R-really?)".

The professor nodded his head and picked up something off his desk. It was a thick stack of papers that were bound together. He handed them to Conrad, who happily took them. He looked like a child getting a gift on his birthday.

"Fohxufj ak nacc xocf ooei jkuoo eik ev kheirco. (Perhaps it will help you stay out of trouble.)"

"Kxudbj Professor Tolkien! Nuak idkac I jxen kxaj ke Wolf! (Thanks Professor Tolkien! Wait until I show this to Wolf!)" Conrad said before heading for the door.

Wolf pulled his head out of view of the window. He leaned against the wall next to the door. A second later the door opened and Conrad came out. He noticed Wolf was there before he had left the door way.

"Wolf! Xen cedw xulo ooei rood jkudtadw kxoho? (Wolf! How long have you been standing there?)"

"Cedw odeiwx. S'med cok'j wok eik ev xoho. (Long enough. C'mon let's get out of here.)"

* * *

- Sargasso Sea; Tol Lithui: Oct. 13th 1939: 11:42 -

* * *

They had left the University and went back into hiding for a few months. After that they returned to Corneria. Three years later, Conrad was murdered.

Wolf took notice of the floor the elevator was approaching and slowed it to a stop. He opened the grate and stepped into his private quarters. He had two entire levels to himself. The lower of the two was where the elevator stopped. It was divided into five areas. One area of it was his bedroom. They had built walls and closed off another area for a bathroom. There was a small kitchen area for when he didn't feel like going all the way down to one of the mess halls. In the center of level was a radio and a movie projector seated next to a comfortable couch. The remaining area was Wolf's study where he kept all of his stuff. On the north side was a door to a staircase that led downstairs, and on the south was a staircase that led up to the top level.

Wolf walked over to his bed and lay the book down on it. His brother had always been pressuring him to try and read it. Maybe he finally would.

He then walked over to the desk in his study. On the wall above the desk was a large map of the world, and pinned to the map were thirteen pictures. The thirteen members of the gang that had killed his brother. One picture was just a piece of paper with a big question mark drawn on it to represent the gang's leader. Seven of the picture had been crossed out. Wolf took a pen and crossed out the picture of Nelson, making eight crossed out pictures and five remaining.

Wolf then looked down at the framed picture of him and Conrad standing with their arms around each other's shoulders. They had this taken on Conrad's fifteenth birthday. Sitting next to the picture was another one of them taken on the same day, only this time the two brothers were accompanied by a white female German Shepard. Wolf was just smiling while the other two looked like they were laughing.

Wolf and Conrad were as close as two brothers could get. Both of them would have gladly died to save the other.

_"If only I could have been the one to die, and he lived."_

Wolf was disturbed from his thoughts by a knock on the door.

"Enter." Wolf told them. He looked to see Leon walk in wearing his custom Zonessian suit. Wolf knew that that suit had all kinds of hidden pockets for hiding knives, poisons, and a gun or two in it. He used to be an assassin for hire, but was now one of Wolf's closest friends.

"So, how'd the hunt go?" Leon asked while walking towards Wolf.

"Good. Eight down, five left." Wolf responded.

"Good." Lean commented. But the way he said it tipped Wolf off onto Leon's true motives. He said it in a way that meant there was something else.

"Hugh," Wolf sighed. "What is it Leon?"

"While you were gone, we received a transmission. It's from Andross, he wishes to hire us to help his war effort." Leon explained. Wolf knew Leon wanted to get involved in the war. Leon was from Venom, which meant he'd have a bit of a natural instinct to fight for his home country.

"Look Leon... I know you're inclined to help Venom, but this isn't one of our usual jobs. This isn't blowing up a mining station, or fighting a group of pirates. This is a war. And I don't think we should get involved in it. It's not our fight."

Leon looked a bit disappointed with Wolf's decision. He opened up his mouth to start arguing again, but Wolf cut him off.

"Leon. I just got back, and I haven't slept in a long time, so I don't feel like doing this right now. Just let me get some sleep, and then if you want, we can discuss this further after I get some rest."

Leon silently agreed to Wolf's conditions. He knew the long trip and had taken its toll by not allowing much sleep to begin with. Plus, time zone differences made getting sleep even harder. That and he knew when Wolf said he needed sleep, he _needed_ sleep.

Leon turned to leave, but right as he reached the door he turned back to face Wolf.

"By the way. Andross said that if we help him, then he can guarantee you'll get revenge on Fox McCloud. Sleep on it." He said before exiting through the door to the staircase.

Wolf just stood there for a while, silently both angry and happy Leon had given him a good reason to join the war. He wanted McCloud's head, but he didn't want to get him or his men involved in a war. With his conflicting emotions causing unrest that would surely keep him from his coveted sleep, he decided to go up to the top floor.

Unlike the rest of the base, the top floor had almost nothing in it. As Wolf reached the top of the stairs, he noticed sunlight coming through the hole in the top of the volcano. The clouds must have moved away and the winds must have shifted to blow the ash in a different direction. Wolf was glad the sunlight was shining through, because it was one of the two best ways to view the floor's only occupants.

Sitting in the circle of sunlight, were three flowers. These weren't ordinary flowers though. They resembled plumerias. Their stems were a vibrant light green. Their petals were diamond blue that faded to white in the middle and each of them seemed to sparkle.

Wolf knelt down next to them and admired their beauty. Then he leaned in and sniffed their sweet fragrance. Instantly his mind was calmed and he was relaxed. That was why he kept this place empty except for the flowers, and why he let no one else up here. It was the one place he could go and be at peace.

The peace came at a price though. As he looked at the flowers, he couldn't help but be saddened by them. For he knew what they truly were. They were the last of their kind. Not only that, but they were all that was left of the lost world this island had once been.

They were all that was left of Cerinia.

* * *

**_In the words of _Gandalf: ****_"The board is set, the pieces are moving."_**

**_I should let you guys know that the next update won't be for a while. I'm going to give the writing a short break, and work on drawing a cover for this story. Why? Because I feel like it deserves one._**

**_So, for those of you wondering, "Wolf can speak Saurian, and was even born in Sauria? How can this be?" Allow me to explain._**

**_In _****Star Fox 64****_, Wolf had a British accent. Granted, in _****Assault****_ he had a more American accent. So, I decided his accent wouldn't be as thick in the story. Of course it's hard judge an accent through typing but anyway I'm getting off point. Wolf originally had a British accent. Plus it's never said what his home planet is. In _****Adventures****_, all the Saurians had British accents. So through methods of deduction, I've deduced that Wolf is from Sauria._**

**_Also, Christmas Cookies for whoever knows what Tol Lithui means and where the name comes from. _**


	5. Chapter 4

**_Hello everybody and Happy New Year! What better way to end the old year and kick off the new one than with a new chapter! And cover art for a bonus! But I've kept you waiting long enough, on with the story!_**

* * *

Ch. 4

* * *

**"Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned, or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn." - Alfred Pennyworth; The Dark Knight**

* * *

-Fortuna; Epsilon Sector: Jan. 30th 1940: 14:05-

The Star Fox team was flying through the sky's over Fortuna. The area they were in was one of the few non-forest areas in the country. Vast fields of farmland stretched out below them. Fox looked out the window of his Arwing and saw a farmhouse and a large barn pass by below them. They had learned that Andross' forces had allowed for the farmers to live. If they pledged allegiance to Andross of course.

All the Venomians had to do was blow something up and most would comply. Some would refuse, and others had been said to have outright attacked the invading forces. But any fighting didn't last long. Fox didn't blame those who chose to comply with the Venomian's orders. Many of the farmers had large families with children to worry about.

_"Children"_, Fox thought. _"I wonder how old they are? Some might even be just infants. They shouldn't have to go through this nightmare at such a young age."_

Fox wondered if his kids would have to go through another world war. _If_ he ever had kids that is. He once had a beautiful girlfriend. She was caring, loyal, a bit headstrong at times. He knew when he first met her that they had a bond. He had even been the one to teach her how to fly. Unfortunately she had been killed a few years ago. He wondered if he would ever find someone else.

He then questioned how much longer this wretched war would last. Over the past four months they had driven Andross' forces back into their own territories. After they drove the Venomians out of this sector, the only enemies left in Fortuna would be the ones who got lost on their way out. The only country that was still occupied by the enemy was Aquas. Andross' hold over it was stronger than the others, but they were still being pushed back. After Fortuna was liberated, it would be on to Venom, and the end of this war.

Fox noticed some of the telltale signs that the Venomians had been in the area as the flew over. Farmhouses were destroyed, fields were on fire, and smoke rose from the smoldering wheat. If they were going to leave, they were going to cause some damage first.

Fox could see the combat zone ahead of them. Their mission was to provide air support and help drive the Venomians out of Fortuna. Little air resistance was to be expected. But their expectations had been proven wrong before in the previous months.

* * *

-Fortuna; Gamma sector; Dresili: Nov. 17th 1939: 10:17-

Dresili was nice nice little town about sixty miles south of Fortuna's capital, Brussels. It's layout was similar to a circle and was half a mile in diameter. Four main roads ran in and out of town, each going north, south, east, and west. The town was made up of one to two story buildings made out of stone and mortar. A few stores ran along the sides of the roads with a few inns here and there in town. A small river ran south through the west side of town and had one main bridge for the road, and two smaller bridges for the town's side streets, leading across it.

Some of the buildings had holes in them, and the streets were littered with bodies, guns, and sandbags. The Allied forces were pushing from the west and south, while the Venomians were defending the north, east, and center of the town. The town may not have seemed all that significant to an outside viewer, but to a general, this was a much needed checkpoint. The four main roads were trading roads, which lead to several main cities in the area. If the Allies gained this town, they'd have access to the roads, allowing for quicker and easier travel.

Star Fox had been deployed over there to provide air support for the men on the ground. They came prepared for anti-ground attacks, with each of them carrying two 250 lb bombs. They had cut down their gun ammo to fifty percent to help reduce the weight their planes would be carrying to improve speed and burn less fuel. The plan was for them to drop their bombs and then strafe the enemy with their guns until they ran out. Their intel said that no hostile planes were in the area, allowing them to focus on their primary objective.

Their first run had been a success. Fox managed to take out a Panzer in one of the streets. Falco managed to take out a gun nest that had been set up on one of the rooftops. Peppy blew up a truck that had been filled with soldiers. And Slippy managed to take out a few enemy mortars that had been set up on the hillside to the northeast of Dresili.

As they were about to turn around for their second run though, Falco's keen eyes spotted something in the distance.

"Uh, Fox. The brass did say there weren't any enemy air units in the area, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Fox replied hesitantly. He had a feeling he wouldn't like the next words that would come out of the avian's mouth.

"Then those must be some pretty big jabrooks up ahead."

Fox could now see fifteen black shapes flying at them in the distance. As they got closer he could see they were flying in formation. Three groups of five in V formation. The fighters were Fw-190s and they seemed to be armed with rockets underneath their wings. They must have been sent here to help their friends drive the Allies back.

Fox knew they had to engage the enemy planes, he just didn't like the circumstances. Him and his team still had a bomb attached to the bellies of their Arwings, and they had half the gun ammo they would normally have. Not only that, but the Fw-190s beat them in the speed department as well, so they would have to rely on maneuverability and better piloting skill.

"Engage the enemy guys, we can't let them reach Dresili." Fox ordered. "Remember were only carrying half the ammo in our plane's guns so make every shot count."

"Stop worrying Foxie. We got plenty of ammo to take out these rookies." Falco arrogantly commented.

"That overconfidence of yours is going to get you killed one of these days Falco." Peppy scolded the smug falcon.

The two groups of fighters flew at each other. When they were within range they fired a flurry of bullets before flying in between each other's ranks. Falco managed to take one down by killing the pilot. The groups split up, and the dogfight began.

* * *

Thirty minutes later and the battle in the skies was still raging. They had managed to take out ten of the fifteen fighters, but they were down one man themselves. Falco had naturally chosen to ignore his teammates advice and ended up running out of ammunition. Since he had nothing left to fight with, they covered him as he flew back to base. Since his trip took him over Dresili he managed to drop off his last bomb there on the way. Fox was too occupied with the fighters though to notice what he hit.

Fox was on the tail of one of the fighters. The fighter tried to shake him but couldn't. Fox fired a short burst into the enemy plane. The process was slow, but it was more accurate and consumed less ammo. If he could just get a lucky shot at the pilot the plane would go down instantly. His thoughts were disturbed though by the sound of metal cutting through metal, glass cracking, and a bullet flying inches in front of his head.

Fox quickly darted his head around looking for the pilot who could have cost him his life. He spotted him, the enemy ace. He was banking to come around and attack Fox from his tail. Fox quickly broke off his chase of the other pilot and tried to lose the ace. The enemy ace fired another volley of bullets at him. Fox heard a shredding noise and quickly looked back to see several holes in his Arwing's tail. Fox tried several maneuvers to try and lose the ace. During the chase he heard small shouts of victory from Slippy and Peppy as they each took down another fighter. The enemy ace was still on his tail though. He thought he was never going to lose this guy, when a piece of advice came over his plane's radio.

"Quick Fox! Do a barrel roll!"

Fox wanted to slap himself for not thinking of it sooner. Barrel rolls had been one of the first maneuver's Peppy had taught him. Fox increased the throttle and gunned his plane to go as fast as it could. The enemy ace kept up the pace, which was just what Fox wanted. He quickly jerked the control stick to the left and cut back the throttle, causing his plane to spin the same direction and reduce it's speed. The Arwing's quickly loss of speed caused it to fall in behind the enemy ace's. Fox corrected the direction of his plane and fired. Their planes were close enough that Fox could see the bullets shredding through the metal and glass cockpit. One bullet fired out of his plane's gun's and was shot directly at the enemy ace's head. The .50 cal bullet shot through the glass and tore through the Boxer's head. The top right of his head seemed to explode as blood shot out and coated the window of the plane red.

Upon seeing the blood, Fox took his finger off the trigger and watched the plane dive into the ground and explode on impact. He looked around and saw Peppy going after one of the Fw-190s. He started to look for Slippy, but it seemed Slippy wanted to find him.

"Help me!" Came Slippy's voice over the radio. "I can't shake him!"

Fox couldn't help but let out a small sigh of disappointment. He sometimes regretted making Slippy drop out of flight school early. He then looked and saw an enemy fighter chasing Slippy. Slippy's fighter looked pretty banged up. There were holes all over it, in the wings, the fuselage, the tail. That plane was going to need a lot of patchwork when they got back.

"Got you!" Peppy shouted as he took down the second to last enemy. "Fox can you help Slippy? I don't have enough rounds left to help."

"Sure thing Peppy. Head back to base and drop your bomb off in Dresili on your way there." Fox quickly replied before another plea for help came from Slippy.

Fox turned his plane towards the enemy chasing Slippy. He pulled the trigger on the control stick. Ten shots rang out from his guns, then...

_Clickclicklick..._out of ammo.

Fox pulled up from his attack dive and looked at his wings in disbelief. The one time he needed to have ammo, and he ran out. Slippy was still being chased below him, and there wasn't anything he could do about it. All he had now was his sidearm, his plane, and a bomb. ...wait, a _bomb?_

An idea popped into Fox's head. It was a crazy one, with a marginal chance of success, but it was his only option. He increased the throttle and flew ahead of Slippy's plane.

"Slippy, how much more can your plane take?"

"I'm not sure Fox, but not a lot."

"Look, I need you to fly in a straight line _directly_ under my plane."

"What!? I'll be a sitting frog out here."

"I need you to trust me on this Slippy. So when I say _Now_ I need you to fly directly under my plane, got it."

"Got it." He replied reluctantly.

Fox flew his plane up a little higher and flipped it upside down. He pulled "up" causing his plane to dive for the ground. If he looked up he could see Slippy and the enemy flying towards him. He hoped he timed this right.

"Now!"

Slippy's plane stopped swerving around and flew directly under Fox's. Just before Slippy was directly under him, Fox dropped his last bomb and pulled up. He banked right and looked just in time to see the bomb land directly onto the Fw-190, causing it to turn into an ball of fire and wrecked metal.

"Yahoo! You did it Fox! That was amazing!" Slippy shouted.

* * *

Slippy dropped his bomb off at Dresili and the two pilots returned to base. When they returned, Slippy wasted no time in telling how Fox had dropped a bomb directly onto an enemy fighter. Falco actually looked impressed, partly, before shrugging it off and saying he could've done the same thing blindfolded. Peppy however looked genuinely impressed.

"You're definitely your father's son Fox. James would use whatever was at his disposal to help his friends out of tight spots too."

Any mention of his father always caused Fox to get emotional. He may have never met his father, but after everything that he had heard, he wished he could've. His father was a great man. Honorable, loyal, a defender of the weak, and a soldier for what was right. His father was many great things, unlike him.

Being James McCloud's son, Fox had been famous from birth. He had been given his father's reputation and legacy, without doing anything to earn it. This war would change that though, he vowed that he would earn the reputation he had been given.

* * *

-Fortuna; Epsilon sector: Jan. 30th. 1940: 14:15-

The Star Fox team flew over the battlefield of farmhouses and fields. Smoke billowed from where the Venomians had set fire to a wheat field, causing the Allied forces to retreat out of it. In another area, a group of soldiers were flanking a tank that had been hiding behind one of the farmhouses. Just a little ways to the east of there, several trenches had been dug to provide cover for the Venomians. A small explosion from a grenade went off in one of the trenches, silencing gunfire from that part of the trench. Similar situations were spread out for over a mile to the northwest and east of their location.

Fox assessed the situation below them. It looked like easy pickings. Which was exactly what worried him. He made a game-plan in his head and set it into action.

"Alright team. Falco, strafe those trenches. Try to take out any MG nests you find, that should help out the boys down there."

"I'm on it." Falco replied before flying off.

"Peppy, you help the troops take out those tanks."

"Got it."

"Slippy, I want you to patrol the area and keep a lookout for enemy fighter reinforcements. I don't want them sneaking up on us."

"You got it Fox."

While the rest of his team did their jobs, Fox would fly around the battlefield and help out, depending on where he was needed most. After strafing some trenches, putting a few tanks out of order, and taking out some ground reinforcements. Things were looking pretty good.

"This isn't as challenging as I thought it would be." Fox thought out loud to himself. Then the call came in from Slippy.

"Guys, we got enemy fighters coming in from the north."

He just had to jinx himself.

He looked to the north and spotted a squadron of six Me-109s heading straight for them. He quickly turned himself around and ordered the rest of his team to engage. He knew that wether the enemy pilots' mission was to engage Star Fox, or engage the ground forces: it would be a failure.

The team reformed into attack formation. Fox looked around and noticed all of them but Slippy had disposed of their bombs. Slippy would likely have full gun ammo as well, but Fox had no idea how much the rest of them had left.

As they got closer to the enemy, Fox noticed that they all had two Werfer-Granate 21 rockets under their wings. Me-109s had two MG-131 and one MG-151 as standard armament. Which meant their Arwings beat them in the weapons department. Hopefully this dogfight wouldn't take too long. While their planes had better weapons they were starting to run low on fuel, and Fox had a feeling these guys had full tanks. Plus he would be lying if he said the ground troops hadn't gotten a few hits on them during their attack runs.

The team quickly formulated a plan and set it into action. Falco and Peppy banked off in either direction to flank around the enemy, while Fox and Slippy charged in guns blazing. They didn't take any down, but a small amount of smoke started emit from one of the planes engine. They dodged their Arwings through the enemy's ranks and pulled around to find Falco and Peppy attacking from the sides. The enemy split up to go after individual targets.

Fox lost track of his teammates as he chased down one of the fighters. He got the enemy in his sights and fired. The sound of his plane's guns thundered from either side of him as a storm of bullets shot out from his plane and into the enemy's. The enemy's engine caught fire and smoke trailed behind it as it crashed to the ground.

Fox looked around and spotted Peppy as he shot down a fighter that had been trailing Falco.

"I had everything under control old timer."

"Sure you did. That's why your plane has a ton of holes in it."

"Hey! Falco, you need to take better care of that thing. Remember, _I'm_ the one who has to patch it up when we get home."

"Oh, stop complaining Slippy. Damage to vehicles is in the job description."

Fox was drawn away from the conversation by the sound of gunfire. He heard the sound of metal being shredded. He looked up and saw a plane fly directly over him. He quickly gave chase to fighter. He had the enemy in his sights and was about to fire, when he heard the thundering sound of gun shots, and they weren't coming from his plane. He looked up in time to see another attack from above.

The flurry of bullets tore through his plane's armor. The majority shot into his engine which started sputtering and coughing out large amounts of black smoke. Several bullets got into his cockpit and wrecked his radio. Fox then let out a loud_ Yipe_ as a bullet broke through the roof of the cockpit and shot into his left thigh.

With his plane's engine failing, Fox had no choice but to make an emergency landing. He sent his plane into shallow dive towards the ground, while struggling to keep control of the plane. He kept glancing around to make sure those two fighters didn't come back to finish the job. Unfortunately they did.

Fox's eyes widened in fear as the two planes dove down on top of him. Gunfire rang out and the two diverted from their attack. Fox smiled as three Arwings flew past him and after the two fighters. He knew he could rely on his friends to help him out.

He then returned his focus to landing his damaged plane on the road between two wheat fields below him. He was about fifty feet above the ground. He lowered his landing gear and slowed his decent. His plane touched down and ran on for another fifty feet before coming to a stop. The fire seemed to have grown in the engine and Fox immediately opened the glass cockpit and quickly jumped out and onto the plane's wing. He gritted his teeth and grunted as pain shot up through his injured leg. He climbed off the wing and limped into the tall wheat. It wasn't long before the fire had spread to one of the planes more volatile components and caused it to explode.

Fox sat down and examined his left leg. He was no doctor but he guessed that he would live, if the bullet had hit an artery he would have bled out by now. He would still need to have it checked and properly treated though. He pulled off his red scarf and tied it over the bullet wound to apply pressure and stop the bleeding.

He looked around to try and orientate himself with where he was. He saw smoke on the horizon and started to walk towards it. Smoke meant the front lines and while the middle of a combat zone might not be the best place to look for medical help, it was the only place for at least a mile that had people.

He stayed in the field and followed the road towards the smoke. After he walked a few minutes his keen ears heard the sound of several feet sprinting in his direction. They must have been soldiers coming to check out the crash. He was about to walk out of the field to meet them, when he heard one of them shout something in Venomian. He quickly backed further into the field and crouched down, hoping the wheat would hide him.

He saw three dark figures run past him along the road. He quietly snuck out of the wheat and looked at the figures running down the road. He recognized their grayish-blue uniforms as those worn by the Venomian army. Which meant one thing; he was behind enemy lines.

Fox backed into the wheat and drew his HG-15 sidearm. Considering his lack of weaponry, he would try to avoid encountering the enemy. If things did go bad though, he wouldn't go down without a fight.

He reached the end of the field and peeked out to see a barn about a hundred feet in front of him. He looked to the sky and aside from a few columns of smoke rising into it, it was clear and blue. He guessed his team had to turn back before their fuel tanks ran out. He looked to his left, then his right. The area looked clear, but the sounds of battle told him that the fighting was going on just behind that barn.

He dashed to the barn as fast as his injured leg would let him. He stopped right outside the backdoor and pressed his ear to it. He couldn't hear any commotion going on inside, but the gunfire from the battle could easily be masking it. He unlatched the door and slowly cracked it open. He peeked inside and was slightly surprised by what he saw. Most barns have hay and a few animal inside of it, this one had a tank. Aside from the tank were three enemy soldiers. A black and grey lemur, a red and black salamander, and a black and brown leonberger. They seemed to be the tank operators and were currently having a discussion in Venomian.

Fox opened the door a bit more and snuck into the barn. He hid in one of the stables and waited for an opening. The three's conversation stopped and one of them said something Fox couldn't understand. The other two said something before silence filled the room. Fox faintly heard footstep coming closer to him and clanking from where the other two soldiers were. The footsteps walked past the stable he was hiding in. Fox holstered his gun and pulled out his combat knife. A second later he heard the backdoor of the barn close. Seeing his opportunity he quickly opened the stable door, grabbed the salamander and pulled him into the stable. He clamped his hand over the salamander's mouth to prevent him from yelling, right before he stabbed him in the heart with his knife. The salamander's body went limp a few seconds later as the bloodstain on his uniform grew bigger.

Fox gently laid the salamander down and peeked out of the stall. He saw the lemur sitting on the back of the Panzer eating a sandwich. Seeing no sign of the leonberger, Fox guessed that he must have been inside the tank.

Fox crept out of the stall with his gun aimed at the lemur should he notice him. Fox noted the MP40 lying next to the lemur. Then the leonberger came out of the tank. The dog noticed Fox and shouted something to the lemur. The lemur in alarm looked at Fox while making a mad grab for his MP40. Fox wasted no time and fired two rounds at the lemur. They both hit him in the chest and blood burst from the wounds as the bullets penetrated his flesh. Fox fired three rounds at the leonberger and got lucky as one hit the dog in the head. The leonberger's body fell into the hatch of the tank.

Fox approached the tank and climbed up on it. He kicked off the lemur's body and went to the hatch. After climbing down into the tank and closing the hatch, he navigated his way to the controls. Unfortunately everything was in Venomian. So, he resorted to the simple way of figuring out how this thing worked. Press buttons until the tank did something.

After flicking several switches and pressing several buttons, he finally found the ignition. The tanks petrol engine revved to life and Fox wasted no time in driving the tank forward and through the barn doors. The frontlines of the battle were raging on, but the Venomians were being forced back. As soon as Fox had left the barn, he started being pelted with friendly fire.

Fox needed to show the Allies that he was friendly. He got out of the drivers seat and went to the gun controls. He looked through the aiming sights and rotated the turret clockwise a hundred degrees. He spotted another Panzer and lined it up in his sights. He pressed one of the buttons.

SHING-CLONG!

Unfortunately he just de-chambered the round. He went to the gun loading area and reloaded the explosive ordinance. He went back to the gun controls and pressed a different button this time.

KPOW!

Fox looked through the targeting sights to see what damage he caused. Unfortunately he had aimed too low and the round hit the tank's treads. The opposing tank started to turn its attention towards him as he reloaded a new round. It would have taken less time if he had someone helping him, as well as if his leg wasn't injured. He got back to the targeting sights in time to see the tank's turret aimed right at him.

"Aw, great." He said in disbelief. He had been hoping to, ideally, die of old age. Or from being shot down, or gunned down in an epic firefight. Dying in an iron coffin had not been one of the outcomes he'd been hoping for.

There was a bang as a ball of flame erupted from the front of the tank. Fox watched through the targeting scope as several Allied soldiers started pelting the tank with gunfire. They were focusing their fire on the driver's vision slot. After several seconds the soldiers ceased fire and approached the tank. One of the soldiers, a chocolate lab, hoisted himself onto the tank and opened the hatch. He leaned over it and Fox's eyes widened as he saw blood burst out of the back of the lab's head. The chocolate lab instantly went limp and fell forward. A badger pulled his body away from the hatch before pulling the pin on a grenade and dropping into the tank. He closed the hatch and six seconds later he reopened the hatch to check inside.

Fox backed away from the targeting scope and sat down inside the iron room. He tried to collect himself after what he just saw. Being a mercenary, he was no stranger to death and killing, but this just felt _different_.

He heard a tapping noise on the hatch of his tank. He climbed up the entry ladder and opened it up. He hadn't been in there very long but it was still enough for the sunlight overhead to make him glance away and put his hand up to block it.

"I'm a friendly, so could you not drop a grenade in here please." He called out before pulling himself up the ladder. He used his arms more for this process since he couldn't put all his weight on his leg.

"Come on out Cornerian." Came a voice with a thick Katinian (Dutch) accent.

Fox pulled himself out of the tank and found himself surrounded by several soldiers. Some of which had their weapons trained on him. Upon seeing him and recognizing his signature uniform of a green flight suit, combat boots, and a custom white leather jacket, they quickly lowered their weapons. They started muttering to each other. Unfortunately, foreign languages weren't one of Fox's fortes, but he did manage to catch his name and his team's here and there.

"Thanks for your help. I thought I was finished in there. Fox McCloud." He said, holding his hand out to the squad leader, who happened to be the badger he had seen earlier. He quickly took it as a smile crossed his face.

"Sergeant Dietger Jansen. Heh, never thought I'd be lucky enough to meet Fox McCloud, let alone save his life." He chuckled.

Fox sat down on the edge of the turret to take the weight off his leg. "Yeah, and thanks for not dropping a grenade on me. How did you know I was on your side?"

"Most Venomians aren't dumb enough to shoot their own tanks."

"Fair point," he said after having his plan confirmed to him as a success. He looked around the former battle field and saw no one. A lot sure had happened in those few minutes he was in the tank. The Allies must have forced the enemy to retreat further back. Since they didn't seem to be in a rush he added, "You speak pretty good Cornerian."

"Ja, my parents moved there when I was fifteen. When the war started I moved back here to protect my homeland."

Fox nodded his head in approval and looked down at his wounded leg. His makeshift bandage seemed to be working, but he would still need to get it treated properly. He looked around at the battlefield again, this time noting the casualties. There were bodies and limbs hanging out of the trenches. You couldn't move your eyes five inches without seeing at least another corpse. All of them had bloodstains on their uniforms and there were areas where the ground had turned to mud from all the blood that had been spilt. Fox had seen death before, so why did this leave him with a sick feeling in his stomach?

Fox then thought about why all this was happening. Several countries uprising and trying to take control for themselves. So some of them had been dealt a bad hand. That was no reason to take it out on the rest of the world. Now the world was engulfed in war. And it was all being led by one man, Andross.

Andross had once been one of the most well respected scientists and engineers in the world. Some would even dare to say that he was best in the world, and even the best of all time. He created many of the military weapons that had been used in the First World War, before he caused it that is. He invented fully automatic machine guns, tanks, flamethrowers, even Mustard gas. He even contributed to medical science. He had everything going for him.

Then one day, he snapped. While experimenting with something he called a _bioweapon_, a test went out of control and led to a widespread pandemic. Even after the disease was contained, three thousand people died (including children), and only about thirteen survived. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Andross had leaked the disease on purpose. At his trial he even admitted to releasing it, knowing full well that the disease was deadly. He was given the death sentence and his execution was scheduled for a week after the trial.

The day before the execution though, an elite squad of Venomians broke him out of jail and brought him to Venom. They made him their emperor and within a year, World War One began. Andross' reign of terror lasted for four years before Fox's father took him down. Or so they had thought.

No one knows why Andross did what he did. Or why he was doing what he was doing. Perhaps he was tired of being restrained by other country's laws and wanted to do things his way. Perhaps all the glory had gone to his head and he thought he could play god and create a better future for the world. Or maybe he just wanted to watch the it burn. Either way, the world had given up trying to figure out that ape's mind a long time ago.

Now here they were. Twenty years later. Driving his forces back into their dark crevices a second time. Fox knew that this time, he was going take down Andross and he wouldn't be coming back a third time.

Fox turned back to Jansen, "Where's the nearest medical outpost with a radio? I need to get my leg taken care of, and my team are probably worried about me."

Jansen nodded his head and turned to his men. He told them something in Katinian, which was a different dialect of Venomian but Fox still didn't understand it. Several of the soldiers went off in one direction while one soldier went off in another. The only three remaining people were Fox, Jansen, and the medic.

"I told Private Gutenberg to find us a way to get you back to Medical unit zero-one-zero-seven. They should be able to contact your team from there. The rest of them have gone to search for stragglers. In the mean time Corporal Van Nostrand will have a look at your leg.

As Fox let the medic look at his leg, he pondered over what had happened to him in just the past hour. He'd taken down an enemy fighter. For the second time ever he had been shot out of the sky. He'd hijacked a tank and almost got blown up by another. For the first time in this war he got to see the carnage that was taking place from ground level. Now he was waiting to get a ride back to base so he could heal up and get back into the fight.

Andross was being pushed back. His second attempt at world domination was failing in less than a quarter of the time his first one did. And Fox was going to be there when the last brick of Andross' fortress crumbled. He was going to be the one leading the charge that would end this war. Then, not only would the Andross threat be finished, but he'd finally have earned the reputation he had been given. He would finally do something that would have made his father proud.

* * *

**_Now for those wondering what in the wonderful world of Disney a jabrook is...I'm not entirely sure myself. I have to make up animals since it wouldn't make sense to have normal animals in this story.  
_**

**_I will see you all next time. _**

**_Wolffury out._**


	6. Chapter 5

**_Hello ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dogs and cats, dragons of all ages. _**

**_Now, I'm sorry that this update was a bit delayed due to technical difficulties. What were these difficulties? Well, I do most of my writing on an app called Plaintext on my iPad then I copy, paste, and edit it on here. Recently the app got bought by a new owner, and instead of using the previous app that worked just fine, they decided to just release a new one. The new version isn't as good as the original, AND they released an update for the previous one that brought up an advertisement to buy the new one. Now here's the best part, the update also prevented me from accessing any of my files I had on the old app and I had over three thousand words for this chapter written! So, after I saw that many other users were angry about this, I decided to wait for the situation to, hopefully, get resolved. In the mean time, instead of writing those three thousand words again, I just started writing a my new story Star Fox: Vengeance. Thankfully though the problem got fixed the very same night I finished writing the first chapter for that story, and I could access my files again. :) After that, I went straight to work and finished this chapter._**

**_So there's why this chapter was slightly delayed, now on with the story!_**

* * *

Ch. 5

* * *

_ "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." - Thomas Jefferson_

* * *

-Aquas; Machlio: Dec. 7th 1939: 11:55-

* * *

Krystal sat in her hiding spot near the top of Machlio's main clock tower. She was next to an open window right below the clock face. Her rifle leaning against the brick wall to the right of the window. Behind her the loud noise of cranking gears filled her ears as they worked to tell time to the citizens. She looked out the window and onto the peaceful city that was under Venom occupation. Things might be quiet, the place lacking any outright indicators of war, but it was there. She had walked through this area while scoping the place out, and she didn't need her telepathy to sense the feelings of fear within the citizens.

After the evacuation of Dunkirk, which had been a success and saved over three-hundred and thirty-eight thousand men, they were forced to get right back to business. After fending off several attempts to bomb Sauria, she had been sent to Aquas to help the Aquian resistance. When she first came to Aquas she met up with the Resistance's leader, Katt Monroe.

They brought her to their underground base of operations, which was a secret bomb shelter under an inn. Katt and her people could gather information, sabotage the enemy, and even ambush them on some of the country roads. They could never catch any "big fish" though, which resulted in their efforts only delaying the Venomians. That was why Krystal was there. Her combination of telepathic powers and her sniper training made her the perfect choice for these missions.

That's why she was up here, waiting in a clock tower in Machlio. Her current mission was to kill the Venomian General in charge of the occupation of the city, Victor Schneider. He always had lunch in the restaurant across the street every Wednesday. He always sat at the third table from the right, next to the window. And he always ordered tokar steak with a glass of red wine.

Unbeknownst to the General, Krystal had been tracking her target for three weeks now. The resistance had been tracking him since before she got there. It wasn't until she got transferred there that they managed to find a "window to shoot him through," so to speak.

Krystal had dyed her fur orange since her normal blue fur stood out from the crowd too much. She had brought several different fur dyes so she could blend in better. She was wearing a white blouse under a black vest that concealed her pistol, a grey skirt, black shoes, and a grey hat she bought from a newspaper boy on the corner of the street. She hated the skirt, and she hated the high heels even more. But, alas, her getaway plan involved her having to blend in with a crowd.

The clock struck twelve and the loud ringing of the bells clanged out even louder for Krystal. As the twelfth bell rang, Krystal grabbed her rifle, pulled five rounds out of her black handbag, and loaded them into the rifle. Her prey would be here any minute. She stood in front of the window and looked down onto the streets. She noticed a fancy Mercedes-Benz with Venomian flags above the headlights drive up to the restaurant. The car stopped and out came General Schneider.

The Rottweiler with a nasty résumé was dressed in his grey Venomian uniform with several medals on his chest, as well as red and gold shoulder boards indicating his status as General. Schneider was nothing short of cruel. He always had the best food and drink delivered to him and his men, while the city only received the bits that were already stale and molding; the only exception being this restaurant, simply because he adored the things they could make with it. If any conflicts arose between the citizens and his men, he would always punish the citizens. Even when they weren't involved Schneider would always find a way to take it out on the innocents. He also put down a nine o'clock curfew, and if anyone who wasn't a soldier was caught, they would be shot, or worse. Krystal had heard accounts of soldiers taking some of the younger women to Schneider for his own personal "_amusement_." Krystal didn't inquire further into what happened but she had a pretty good idea, and it only increased Krystal's disgust and hatred for the Venomians.

Schneider gave the keys to a parking valet and disappeared into the restaurant. He appeared a minute later at the third table from the right, next to the window. He sat down and told the waiter his order. Krystal reached out with her mind to confirm that it was him. He was thinking about the tender juicy steak he would soon be eating. It was him alright.

_So predictable. _she thought.

She readied her rifle and aimed down at Schneider through the iron sights. The sights were lined up with his head. She took a deep breath, held it, and put her finger on the trigger as she got ready to fire.

* * *

-Fichina: Jan 12th. 1938: 12:15-

* * *

Krystal waded through the knee high snow that covered the ground. The Fichinian mountains were considered as uninhabitable to most. A storm was blowing through, sending the already cold temperatures down to twenty-five below zero. Once the sun went down the temperatures would drop to as low one-hundred negative. Her heavy leather and fur lined coat kept out most of the cold, but her hood didn't cover her face. The wind buffeted against her and she had to block the sleet with her arms as it threatened to shred the fur off of her face.

The storm had only started an hour ago, but she had been hiking through these mountains since nine o'clock that morning. The people at the lodge warned her not to seek out her destination, but she was determined to go anyway. She had already come too far to turn back now.

Her stomach started to growl at her as she continued walking. She couldn't take a break to eat though. The stop would only lengthen her time in the snow, and there wasn't anything suitable to use as a shelter. She shouldn't have much farther to go before she reached her destination and could get out of the storm.

It was another ten minute before Krystal saw something that gave her hope. A small speck of light flickered in the distance. The small spark lit a fire of hope inside of her which drove her to quicken her pace. She trudged through the snow with strengthened determination.

The next thirty minutes seemed to drag on as the light slowly grew. She could now make out the cabin with a single source of light shining through its windows. Another few minutes later and she could make out the door of the cabin and made a beeline for it. She pulled her feet out of the snow and onto the cabin's front porch. Shivering, she stepped up to the door, raised her fist, and pounded on the door.

Three seconds later, a middle aged, dark-grey Borzoi (Russian Wolfhound) opened the door. He gave Krystal a quizzical look, wondering why _anyone_ would be out in weather like this. His cabin was a several mile hike from the nearest town, and through some of the toughest terrain in the area. Going up to his house in this weather was considered suicide. Part of the reason why he moved here.

The wolfhound stepped out of the way and beckoned Krystal into the cabin. He may have chosen seclusion, but that didn't mean he was going to let someone freeze to death. He noted her heavy winter clothing was soaked on the outside and patches of ice had frozen onto it.

"Living room is the first door to your right. There's a fire going in there to help you get warmed back up." He said before closing the front door and walking into the other room.

Krystal walked into the living room and over to the fireplace before setting down her satchel that contained some supplies and her Cerinian staff. She took off her heavy coat, gloves, and snow boots to reveal a brown wool sweater, some loose fitting jeans held up by a belt, and wool socks. She sat down next to the fire and warmed herself up while waiting for her host to return. She observed the little living room she was sitting in. The entire cabin was made out of wood that was native to the area. There was a comfortable looking couch situated in front of the fire, a rocking chair to the couch's right, and animal skin rugs covered the floor.

Her host returned a few minutes later with a thick blanket in his arms. He was startled when he saw that Krystal's fur was blue. But, he decided he would ask about it later and handed her the blanket. She immediately threw it around her shoulders while her host sat down in the rocking chair. Even with several layers of clothes on, the cold had still managed to sneak into her skin. After a few minutes of silence while she warmed back up, her host spoke up.

"So, what is a beautiful young girl like you, doing in a frozen wasteland like this?" He asked.

She turned her gaze from the fireplace to him. "I'm here looking for _you_ actually."

"_Me_," he asked in disbelief. Why would someone risk their life coming out here for little old him?

"Yes," she said, nodding her head to reinforce the statement. "You are Igorek Dragunov, aren't you?"

"That I am. But that still doesn't answer why you would risk your life looking for me."

"I heard that in the World War, you were the best sniper there was. I decided that if I was going to learn to be one, I should learn from the best."

Igorek got a far away look in his eyes. The mention of the war brought back many memories, mostly bad ones. He rested his chin in his hand before asking, "And what makes you want to be a sniper?"

"I'm already a decent pilot, I'm even the leader of my squad. I already know basic combat training from boot camp, and I'm more than capable in close combat thanks to my peoples training. I thought I should learn to take out targets from longer range. And should another war come up, maybe I could use the training to take out high priority targets and end the war faster. Spare more lives." She said while recalling all her training that she had gone through in just the past year.

Igorek just sat there with his gaze focused on the fire, pondering the words Krystal had just spoke. He turned his mournful gaze to her. She couldn't have been more than nineteen. He saw her as beautiful; not as he would see his mate, but as a father sees his daughter. She seemed like a nice girl. She had good intentions in trying to spare as many lives as possible. But those same intentions also made her naïve.

"Sniper or no sniper, you won't be sparing many lives from their fate of death." He coldly commented. Krystal gave him a look of confusion. "Let me give you some advice young one, from someone who has actually been in a war. You should leave whatever military you're joined in, find someone to settle down with, and start a family. War is not a pretty thing, and someone as beautiful as you should not have any part of it. When we fought against Andross, it did not matter how many officer's I took down, they still kept coming. As long as Andross was alive and in charge, his men would never give up, never surrender. I thought similar to you once. Take off the head, and the rest will submit. But no matter how many heads I took off, they still fought until every last one was dead.

When I was sent to the Aquian front, the trench warfare had already begun. Two lines of trenches one Allied, the other Venomian. And between them, No-Man's Land. A long stretch of death and destruction that many tried to cross, but no one every did, and almost none returned with their lives. I was positioned out there. We snipers would sneak out at night and hide in fake trees. No matter what, we had to stay there all day. It wasn't easy, and if you were spotted you were dead. Then those Saurians invented ghillie suits, and we were finally able to make progress. But the casualties still reached into the millions. So do you still want to be a sniper?"

Krystal nodded her head and Igorek let out a sigh of disappointment. "You've got spirit young one. I'll teach you everything I know."

"Then why do you look so sad about it?"

"I don't take joy in the idea of a young girl like you going to war. But if you're determined enough to brave this terrain and this weather to find me. Then I doubt there's anything I can say to change your mind. If you plan on going into a war, I might as well make sure you go in prepared."

Krystal smiled and Igorek returned it.

"So what about you," he asked. "Where are you from? I've never met anyone with blue fur before, and I've got a suspicion it has something to do with your people whom you mentioned earlier."

"Your right. All of my people had blue fur. You see, I'm from a place called Cerinia. It was a small continent in a part of the ocean you call the Sargasso Sea."

"I've never heard of Cerinia, but I'm not surprised. The Sargasso Sea has the most dangerous waters on Lylat."

"Indeed. Leaving had not been an easy feat, I was lucky a Saurian fishing boat picked me up or I would have died." Krystal commented mournfully. Speaking of her former home and people was brining up old and painful memories.

"But why do you speak of it and your people in the past tense. You act like they don't exist anymore."

Krystal's sad gaze locked with Igorek's before she mournfully informed him, "That's because they don't."

* * *

-Cerinia; Royal Palace: Feb. 23rd 1937: 13:07-

* * *

Krystal was standing out on the balcony of her royal bedroom. Her arms were crossed, her tail angrily flicking back and forth, and she was fuming on the inside as she looked out over the kingdom. The palaces stone courtyards that contained the royal gardens stretched out beneath her until they reached the palace wall. Beautifully constructed walls of pure white stone that reached fifty feet in the air.

And beyond them, the village. A charming gathering of white stone houses, and marketplaces. Further out were some of the kingdom's farmlands, and beyond those, Cerinia's luxurious jungles. In the distance the luscious green jungle met grey mountains, and the grey mountains met the bright blue sky.

The sky. The sky. O how she wished that she could soar up into the sky, and escaped the dreadful future that awaited her. How she wished she could fly up there again like she did with the man she loved. It had only been yesterday, but it felt like a lifetime since she had met him. If only he could have taken her with him, and freed her from her fate.

Krystal gloomily gazed down at the village, where even from this distance she could see people were much busier than they usually were. Then her gaze turned to the courtyard. Hundreds of decorations filled the courtyard, and more had yet to be put up. Servants and volunteers moved around like busy ants getting things ready for the wedding. _Her_ wedding.

Anger bubbled up inside of her again as all the events leading up to this were replayed in her mind. She stomped her foot in rage and angrily paced between her bed and the balcony.

_It's not fair!_ She thought to herself furiously. _I don't want to marry that dirtbag prince from Mordor!_

Cerinia was split amongst three kingdoms: Valhalla ruled by the Valar, Mordor ruled by the Mordons, and Istville ruled by the Istiri. Each kingdom had their own distinct qualities. The people of Valhalla were considered the wisest on Cerinia and all had blue fur. The people of Istville were adventurous and courageous, and could be distinguished by their green fur, if you could find them amongst the green vegetation that is. Krystal was convinced she must have had Istiri blood in her veins, because she had many of the same qualities they did. An adventurous spirit, fearless in the face of danger, and combat skill that more than exceeded her own peoples. Then last of all was the Mordons. They were the most violent of the three kingdoms. They valued power over everything else and squashed the weak who got in their way. They could easily be distinguished by their distinct blood red fur.

The three kingdoms had been at peace with each other for fifty years. But that was slowly changing due to increasing tensions between the Valar and the Mordons. That was why the marriage was taking place. Her father had gone behind her back and arranged with the Mordon king for their children to be wed, and settle the tensions between the two kingdoms. Only problem was, Krystal didn't want to marry the no-good scumbag.

_The sick little gorgon, tried to force himself upon me yesterday. But does anyone believe me? No! And now I'm stuck in here like a child because my father doesn't care about me or my feelings. It's not my fault I'm not a son like he wanted._

Needless to say, Krystal's relationship with her father, wasn't the best. They used to get along great when she was younger, until her mother died and her father blamed Krystal for her death. Slowly over time a bridge began to form between the two, but now the bridge was threatening to be shattered forever. It had already been broken thanks to last night's argument that had taken place in this very bedroom.

* * *

"What were you thinking!?" Her father shouted at her in anger. The first thing he had done when they got to the palace was personally escort his daughter to her room, and none too gently either.

"I was thinking that he rescued me from that psychotic freak that you want me to marry!" Krystal shouted back in anger, with a hint of sadness thrown in.

"He could have kidnapped you! Do you know what that would mean?"

"That I wouldn't have to get married to that pervert?"

_Smack._

Krystal recoiled from the strong slap and brought her hand up to her cheek. Her cheek stung and she had to force down the tears that were threatening to make an appearance. Not because the slap hurt, but because of what it meant.

"Don't speak that way about your husband!" He told her angrily.

"He's not my husband yet." She responded grimly.

"Come tomorrow he will be. Then this entire thing can be over and done with."

"For you, not for me. Don't you get it? I. _Don't_. Love. Him."

"But you love that flyboy instead? Oh, please. You don't know anything about love. He'd dump you for a better girl the first chance he gets." Krystal felt anger and pain bubbling up inside of her.

"No he wouldn't! He's better than that. He's better than _you!_"

"Watch your tongue missy. You are marrying Prince Kaleb, and there's nothing you, or you pretty flyboy can do about it." The king then sighed heavily and rested his face in his hand before whispering. "Things would be so much easier if I just had a son."

"What was that?" Krystal inquired, not catching all of what her father had said.

"I said, things would be easier if I just had a son!" He responded, raising his voice again.

"So what? You wish I was a son instead of your daughter?"

The king just huffed and turned away, but he didn't get far before Krystal shouted out more.

"I know you're harboring these feelings. I've felt them stirring inside you my whole life. Just tell me. Do you wish I was a son instead of a daughter?" She pleaded.

"Yes! I wish I had a son! I wish I had a son rather than you! I wish I never had you for a daughter!** I wish you had never been born!**" He shouted in rage.

Tears swelled up in Krystal's eyes and poured down her face as she turned and ran to her bed, trying to keep the sobs for choking out. It wasn't until she reached her bed and buried her head in her pillow that she let it all out. Her father just stared at her, feeling guilty for what he had said, but he knew that there was no taking it back. He turned to leave the room. He stopped himself at the door and looked over his shoulder at his daughter before saying in a dead serious tone, "You're marrying Prince Kaleb tomorrow, and that's final."

* * *

Krystal shed more tears after recalling her augment with her father last night. She had tried so hard to make her father proud of her. So hard to have a happy relationship with her father. She did everything he wanted and never questioned the choices he made for her, but the one time she wanted to make her own decision, he rejects her wish.

Krystal heard a knock at her door and quickly wiped the tears from her eyes before beckoning her visitor in. The door opened and in stepped her best friend, and now partner in treason, Violet. Her muzzle was slightly longer than Krystal's, and she had pink eyes contrary to Krystal's turquoise ones. Her hair was much longer and braided to the side and over her left shoulder. Unlike Krystal's rather revealing wedding attire, she wore a single strap shirt and skirt that reached her knees. She checked to make sure the coast was clear before closing the door behind her. They both closed off their minds to the rest of the world for privacy before speaking about what they had planned.

"Has everything been arranged?" Krystal whispered. They had been planning her escape ever since they found out she was getting married. The events of yesterday only strengthened Krystal's resolve to leave. Too much was riding on this for it to fail.

"Yeah, Clint managed to swap guard posts with Daemon. He's waiting for you down at the kitchen's supply entrance. Perks of courting a palace guard." Krystal's mouth curved into a smile.

"I'll make sure to come back in a few years and give the two of you a proper thank you."

"You don't have to do that Krystal, we're happy to help. Now come on, we need to get going so you can go find _your_ true love."

"Alright, let's go."

They snuck out of Krystal's bedroom and through the palace halls with Violet leading the way. They had to make some detours to avoid the guards, but they eventually made their way to the kitchens. They had to take extra care while sneaking through the kitchens to avoid the royal chefs as they baked their hearts away making delicacies for the wedding. A shame they would never get to have their works of art appreciated.

They eventually made their way to the supply entrance where Clint was waiting for them in his golden guards armor. The supply entrance was a separate chamber that led outside of the palace for merchants and farmers to sell their food to the royal family. Once Krystal and Violet entered, Clint visibly relaxed from his pacing. He set his staff against the wall and rushed to the two girls. He quickly embraced Violet and gave her a romantic kiss. Krystal just stood to the side and smiled as the two had their moment. She was happy for them, they deserved to be together. She wished she could be there when they got married, she knew it would happen. Missing it was possibly the only regret she had about leaving.

The two finally broke apart from their kissing session, and Clint finally acknowledged Krystal's presence. "Krystal, glad to see you made it for your escape."

"Glad to see you too Clint." She replied before giving him a quick hug.

"C'mon. We still have a fair trek to your escape boat, and it won't be long before your father finds out you're gone. If he hasn't already."

The three walked to the outer door and Clint took out his guard keys to unlock the door. They went out the door and started their journey into the jungle. The palace was built with it's back against a mountain, and Krystal had hid her boat on the other side of the mountain. They weren't five minutes into their hike before Krystal felt something amiss, then she heard it. It was a sound similar to the one she had first been introduced too yesterday. The humming sound of a plane engine.

Her two friends heard the noise as well, but while they looked around the jungle, Krystal knew exactly where to look. She cast her gaze upon the sky and soon spotted them. Hundreds of planes traveling from the north filled the sky and were soon overhead the group. Then the first bomb dropped.

**BOOM!**

More bombs rained down from the sky and bombarded the land. The majority of them were being focused on the palace and village, but a lot were still being dropped in the surrounding area. One went off to the right of the three and they wasted no time in breaking into a run. As they sprinted through the forest more bombs continued to rain around them.

"I don't suppose this is your friend's work?" Violet asked her friend. Shouting over the explosions. She sounded scared and Krystal didn't blame her, even she was intimidated by the army filling the skies.

"No. He would never do something like this." She was positive of it. He said he would return in a week, not one day. Plus he didn't have a fleet this large, he only had four planes not five hundred. Besides he said he would give her a chance to escape on her own before he came back to rescue her.

A bomb landed just to their left, and the explosion got Clint. His body was launched into a tree before it fell to the ground.

"_**NO!**_" Violet cried before rushing to Clint's side, with Krystal following close behind. Krystal didn't need to reach out with her mind to know that he had been killed instantly. She felt a sick twisting feeling in her gut as she observed the damage that had been done to Clint. His right arm had been blown off, leaving ragged flesh with a jagged broken bone poking out of the stump, with blood oozing out of the wound. His golden armor proved useless against the blast as the right side of it was shredded, revealing red blood, torn flesh, and damaged ribs poking out from the hole in his armor. Most of the flesh had been ripped off of his right leg, revealing a few good chunks of his femur, tibia, and fibula. His kneecap had been blown off entirely. Several large gashes covered the right side of his face, with the shortest one being an inch and a half long.

Violet wept her heart out as she clutched Clint's head to her chest. Krystal felt the tears forming in her eyes from the sorrow caused by the death of one of her closest friends. More bombs went off around them causing Krystal to flinch back into reality, but Violet was deaf to the bombardment. Krystal grabbed her shoulder to try to get her to hurry, but Violet just shrugged her hand off.

"Go Krystal! You can still get away. I'm not going to leave him." She cried. Krystal wanted to beg her friend to run, but she knew that Violet wouldn't. If she was going to die, than she wanted to die alongside the man she loved.

Krystal turned and ran, but she didn't make it twenty steps before she stopped. She turned back to Violet. Her and Violet could escape together. And she wasn't going to take _no_ for an answer. But she didn't even get the chance to call out to her before a bomb landed between them. The shockwave made Krystal fall back. She felt a burning pain in her left arm and saw a piece of shrapnel sticking out of it. She pulled herself up and looked at where she had last seen Violet. Her stomach churned and she quickly turned away after glimpsing what had become of her friend. The bomb had landed closer to Violet causing the skin to be shredded off her back, leaving nothing but bloody red flesh and bone with blood pooling around their bodies.

Krystal quickly turned back to the escape route she had planned and began sprinting, crying over the deaths of her two best friends as she ran. She ran through the jungle as bombs exploded to her right and to her left. Her wounded arm was insignificant compared to what she had already lost. And she knew that there were more. The bombing was centered around the palaces and villages, which meant thousands of lives had already been lost. They couldn't defend against something like this, no one on Cerinia could.

The hour long trek to the shore where she hid her boat felt like an eternity. She was almost there when she noticed that the bombing had stopped, but the loud hum of plane engines was still present. She stopped for a second and scanned the skies. The planes had changed direction and were heading back north.

Another half an hour later and she found herself at the northeast cliff over looking the ocean. Just below her was the cave she had hidden her escape boat and supplies in. A bit further to the east the cliff sloped down and turned into a sandy beach that was untouched by the bombs. She climbed down the cliff side and into the cave. She got on her boat and untied it from the rock that she had fastened the rope around.

She set a course to the north and let the boat drift as she double checked her supplies. She had packed plenty of food and water, a change of clothes, and her staff that she had Violet sneak onto the boat the previous night. She had traveled a mile away from the island when she noticed a plane that was larger from the others fly towards Cerinia. She went back to attending the boat, mourning all the lives that had been lost. Then she felt it.

She felt and heard in her mind as a million Cerinians cried out in pain and terror, then... _silence_. She noted a bright flash from behind her. Then the shockwave hit and made her boat lurch forward. She picked herself up after being thrown to the floor, and looked back towards Cerinia. She could no longer see her homeland or sense any life from it. Instead, she saw a large black cloud shaped like a mushroom rising into the sky.

* * *

-Fichina; Dragunov's cabin: Jan 12th. 1938: 14:02-

* * *

"So what became of you after that?" Igorek asked. He was leaning forward and had his arms resting on his knees. He had been so pulled into the story that he hadn't said a word while she had told her tale.

"Later that night, I sailed into one of the storms that the Sargasso Sea is famous for. Thankfully it wasn't one of the worst storms, but I still lost most of my supplies. Four days later, I was just drifting out in the ocean. I was nearly dead from dehydration and heat stroke, when a Saurian fishing boat picked me up and brought me back to Sauria with them. I then joined the RAF and when I learned all I could there, I traveled up here."

"You mentioned that you were looking for someone. A 'flyboy' your father called him. What ever became of him?" He asked out of curiosity.

"He's known around the world. He travels a lot, but never near Sauria. I couldn't leave because of my training, and I had no way to get into contact with him. Originally I planned to finish training, then go looking for him myself. But the more I learned, the more I doubted I would get the chance to even start my search, and the more determined I was to finish training."

"And why is that?"

"Because _war_ is coming." She said seriously.

"War is always coming. People think that once peace is established that it will last, but it won't. No matter how popular you are, no matter how many followers you have. There will always be at least one who disagrees. Then disagreement leads to an argument, an argument leads to a fight, fight leads to a riot, riot to a revolt, and revolt turns into war. It is only a matter of time until the next war starts. But I don't see it happening for a while. All the countries want to heal from the last war as much as they can before they start another one."

"No. War is coming, and _soon_." She said, locking her eyes with his.

"What makes you so sure?"

"Because _Andross_ is back."

"What!? That is impossible, Andross is dead." Igorek argued.

"No he's alive and preparing his forces for war." She said, still keeping her eyes locked on his with an intimidating stare that was only magnified by the reflection of the glow from the fireplace.

Seeing the dead serious look in her eyes, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. "How do you know this?"

"When the bombers first flew over Cerinia I read a few of their minds, and they all had one thought in common. '_Hail Andross_.' It wasn't until after I came to Sauria that I learned the significance of the name." Igorek still looked reluctant to believe that the greatest threat to their world had returned, so she persisted. "I read all about Andross, and he is the only one capable of designing the weapon that destroyed Cerinia." Igorek leaned back in his chair and scratched his chin while he gazed into the fireplace. "What are you thinking?"

Igorek's gaze quickly shifted to her. "I thought that your people could read minds. Why do you have to ask what I'm thinking?"

"We can if we want to. Most of us have enough sense of honor and respect for people's privacy that we don't, unless we either have a good reason to or the other person's permission."

Igorek nodded his head, gazing into the fireplace again. After a few seconds he let out a small sigh. "I'm thinking, that we should get started with your training in the morning. If Andross truly does return, then you're going to need all the training you can get."

A smile graced Krystal's face upon hearing his decision to train her. The two of them then got Krystal settled in, ate some dinner, and settled down for the night. The next morning, Igorek woke Krystal up before the sun had even risen, and her training began.

Over the next year, Igorek taught Krystal everything he knew about being a sniper. Becoming a sniper was very similar to becoming a hunter. She had to know how to track her prey. What were it's routines, it's natural habitat, it's desires. She had to know what her target would do in different situations. Did it choose fight or flight? When did the target let it's guard down? She had to learn how to hide herself amidst the environment and become invisible. And most important of all; how to be patient.

* * *

-Aquas; Machlio: Dec 7th. 1939: 12:09-

* * *

Krystal stared down her sights at Schneider. Anyone else would have had difficulty making the shot without a scope, but not her. One thing Igorek taught her that no military ever would, was how to be twice as efficient at sniping without the use of a scope. Scope's made it easier, but they could also be troublesome. The glass could fog up or get smudged, not to mention the glare from the overhead sun could give away one's location. Krystal only used a scope for extremely long range shots, anything from a shorter distance and she used the best and most efficient telescopic scope ever designed, her eyes.

_"Many do not appreciate their eyes as much as they should." _Igorek had once told her._ "Your eyes can spot a single lit match from a mile away. They can adjust to different intensities of light. They can automatically correct your vision for looking from near to far distances and back, without you even having to think about it. The eye is truly one of God's great creation's."_

Krystal watched as Schneider eagerly awaited his much anticipated meal. He was completely at ease without a worry of being assassinated. Just like she wanted him to be. She had been the one to call off all resistance operations in Machlio. She knew that as long as Schneider thought there was a threat, he would never come out of hiding. So she ordered the area to go silent, make it seem like the Venomians had forced them to retreat. Everything had gone as planned. The Resistance held back, and Schneider had walked right into her hand.

Krystal took in a deep breath and held it. She gently placed her finger on the gun's trigger, and squeezed it.

**POW!**

The rifle fired the bullet out of the gun's barrel. The bullet punctured the glass, causing the area around the hole to become littered by hundreds of cracks, with several curved and zig-zagging cracks branching out from it. The bullet drove straight through above Schneider's right temple and exited out from behind his lower jaw on the left side. There was a burst of blood from the bullet wounds before he fell forward onto the table, dead.

Krystal's keen ears picked up the sounds of screaming from the streets below as she lowered her rifle and unloaded the empty bullet cartridge. She picked up the empty casing and put it in her handbag. She held her handbag in one hand and the rifle in the other as she quickly descended the stairs and made her way to the clock-tower's ground floor.

She entered the building's storage room and walked over to a large grate in the floor. The grate led down into the storm tunnels that the Resistance used to get around, and was currently where one of her fellow Resistance members was awaiting her. The grate was too heavy to lift and the spaces between the bars were _way_ too narrow for her to squeeze through, but they were wide enough to fit her rifle through. She'd knelt next to the grate and lowered her rifle into the storm drain. She felt someone else grab it and released her grip, then watched the rifle disappear beneath the grate.

"Get back to headquarters and inform them Schneider is dead. Katt should return soon to confirm the kill." She spoke in Aquian. Being a telepath also gave Krystal the advantage of learning new languages almost instantly as long as she could learn from someone who spoke the language. If she tried to learn from a book, then she had as much difficulty as the next person.

"Oui, Lieutenant." Came the voice of her amphibian partner. "Be careful out there."

"I will, and thanks." She said before quickly exiting the storage room and leaving through the back door and into the alley. The Venomians would soon be scouring the streets, searching for the shooter. She exited the alley and began blending into the crowd. After traveling several blocks without being stopped or raising any alarms, she relaxed a little but not completely. The time when you relax and let your guard down is the time you get killed.

* * *

-Aquas; Classified: Dec 7th. 1939: 16:17-

* * *

Krystal stepped into the main command center of the resistance headquarters, which was positioned in a secret location for security purposes. The table in the center had a map of Aquas laid out on it. Red flags represented the known locations of Andross' forces, while blue flags represented their forces. Standing next to the table was the Resistance's leader, Katt Monroe, and her second in command, Jacques Dernier.

Dernier was a foxhound with brown eyes and white fur with black and brown spots. He wore a brown tweed jacket over a light blue shirt with dark grey pants and black boots. On his head he wore a paperboy's hat like Krystal's, only his was black. He had a mustache of black fur across his upper lip. He was carrying an MP40 that he stole from the Venomians, as well as a stolen Luger holstered in his belt.

Katt was wearing a black barrette on her head with a Aquian flag patch sown onto it. She wore a black sweater and black pants along with black combat boots. She had changed out of her disguise from earlier when she got back to headquarters. She had been hidkng within the restaurant to confirm the death of Schneider. She had taken a shorter route back to base while Krystal took the longer route.

"And?" Krystal asked in anticipation. She was confident in her abilities and was expecting it to be a confirmed kill, but even she could fall subject to error. She could have read Katt's mind, but like she told Igorek, she had rules about mind reading.

"Kill confirmed. Good work Krystal. That's one more Venomian General down." Katt said cheerfully.

"But that's not the end of it. Andross' forces are still occupying the city." Krystal noted as she recalled Igorek's words.

_"As long as Andross was alive and in charge, his men would never give up, never surrender. I thought similar to you once. Take off the head, and the rest will submit. But no matter how many heads I took off, they still fought until every last one was dead."_

"True, but they are disorganized, and they are scared," Dernier said encouragingly. "We've shown that no matter how safe they think they are, we can still strike them."

"Maybe, but that could also mean they are less likely to let their guard down so easily." Krystal commented.

"You think we should have held off?" Katt inquired.

"No. This was a move we would've had to make eventually. And we got one of Andross' top General's out of it."

Katt just nodded her head and looked back down at the map. Krystal could tell from the look in her eyes that she was planning their next move. Her feline eyes held a calculating look as their focus moved from flag to flag. Finally, her lips faintly curved up as a plan clicked together in her mind.

"Krystal, you should go get changed out of those dreadful clothes. Then grab some rest. I've got a new target in mind, and I want you and Martin to scope it out tonight."

Krystal nodded and gave a salute before walking off to her barracks. There were two main barracks one for the men, and one for the women. But Katt thought that Krystal deserved her own private barracks, and if there was one thing about you never did, it was argue with Katt. Katt could be as stubborn as Violet used to be, which was probably why she and Krystal had become such great friends over a short period of time.

Her barracks weren't all that great though. It was just an alcove carved into the rock with a bed, a small shelf, and a lamp. A curtain made out of a blanket was the only thing separating her room from the hallway, but at least everyone was respectful enough to ask before entering. Her Cerinian staff was leaning against the wall next to the bed, combat boots were lying next to the bed, and her suitcases were stashed under it. Several hooks were screwed into the wall that held several rifles on them. The hip holster for her sidearm was hanging from the bedpost.

She closed the curtain behind her, took off her vest, and hung her hat on one of the bedposts. She took her sidearm out of it's shoulder holster and placed it in it's proper one. She then changed out of her disguise and into her camouflaged clothes. A dark green and brown beanie, green t-shirt under a dark green, brown, and black camouflage pattern jacket, some dark green cargo pants, and black combat boots.

She then opened up her handbag and took out the shell casing from the bullet that killed Schneider. She rolled it between her fingers before turning it sideways to read the name she had carefully etched into the metal. _Schneider._ She placed the casing onto the shelf so that it was standing up on end next to a couple other shell casings that also had names scratched onto them. She knew a few snipers who kept count of how many kills they had by scratching them into the stock of their rifles. She just collected the casings from her higher ranked kills. She now had three, but there were still many Generals out there. Then she looked to the right side of the shelf, where she had one bullet for every rifle she had, all of them with the same name scratched into the casing. _Andross._

She decided to take a one-hour nap before grabbing some dinner. She wondered what the cook was making tonight. Probably something delicious as always. It always surprised her what their cook could do with the few supplies they had.

She soon drifted off to sleep with her mind pondering what had happened, and what was yet to come in the war. The tide was quickly turning in many of the other countries, especially since word came that the Star Fox team had joined the fight. Moral had really been boosted then. She then thought about the mercenary life. She had been interested in joining him and his team, if only just to be by his side. It would have to wait until after the war though. At the moment she was needed by the Resistance here in Aquas.

Something was troubling her though. She knew the kind of power Andross wielded. She had seen his weapons wipe Cerinia off the face of the world. So why hasn't he used them against the Allies? She had a feeling that the worst of this war had yet to come. The direction of the war may be turning, but it was far from over.

* * *

**_Phew, nearly 8'000 words. I think thats a record for me. Anyway, here are some interesting things that I thought were both cool and relevant._**

**_Did you know, that the title of deadliest sniper in history is currently held by Simo Häyhä (1905-2002), with 505 confirmed kills all within a 100 day period. Plus, guessed what his sniper rifle lacked? That's right, no telescopic scope just iron sights. (Hence the inspiration for the story.)_**

**_Also, Igorek's story about WWI is true. There was trench warfare and No-Man's Land, and sniper's did sneak out to hide in fake trees. In slight contrast it was actually Scottish Gamekeepers who invented the ghillie suit, but it was still used in WWI._**

**_So, how did you all like it? I bet none of you were expecting some of the events that took place in this chapter, especially on Cerinia. Feel free to leave a review below. I'm also curious as to how many of the Easter Eggs and cameo appearances you guys spotted. If you think you missed any, don't feel ashamed. It was a pretty long chapter, and some of them were more subtle than others._**

**_I'll see you guys next time._**

**_Wolffury out._**


End file.
